UK Unveils Anti-Strike Legislation Requiring ‘Minimum Safety Levels’ During Industrial Action

Southeastern trains in sidings during a strike by train drivers from the Aslef union, at Ramsgate station in Kent, England, on Jan. 5, 2023. Gareth Fuller/PA Media

The UK government has announced new legislation to ensure “minimum safety levels” in the most crucial sectors when industrial action takes place.

In a statement released on Thursday, the government said it will “always protect the ability to strike,” but it must be “balanced with the public’s right to life and livelihoods.”

The government has a duty to the public to “ensure their safety, protect their access to vital public services, and help them go about their daily lives,” it said.

Therefore, the government said it will introduce a bill in Parliament in the coming weeks to ensure that vital public services will have to maintain a basic function and deliver minimum safety levels during industrial action.

Trade unions will be bound to follow this legislation and will risk the employer bringing an injunction to prevent the strike from taking place or seeking damages afterwards if they do not comply with their obligations.

Business Secretary Grant Shapps arriving for a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street, London, on Dec. 20, 2022. Stefan Rousseau/PA Media

Business Secretary Grant Shapps said: “We hugely value the work of our public services and we’re reaching out to unions to have an honest conversation on pay, conditions, and reform. Industrial action is disruptive for everyone—from people relying on essential services to get to work or care for their family to hard-working business owners whose sales suffer. It also costs those striking at a time when family budgets are tight.

“As well as protecting the freedom to strike, the government must also protect life and livelihoods. While we hope that voluntary agreements can continue to be made in most cases, introducing minimum safety levels—the minimum levels of service we expect to be provided—will restore the balance between those seeking to strike and protecting the public from disproportionate disruption.”

International Precedents

The announcement was made amid a wave of strikes, including a walkout by train drivers on Thursday which crippled rail services.

Under the new legislation, minimum safety levels will be set for fire, ambulance, and rail services and the government will consult on the “adequate level of coverage” for these sectors.

For the other sectors covered in the bill, which include health services, education, nuclear decommissioning, other transport services, and border security, the government said it will aim to reach voluntary agreements, and would only look to consult on minimum safety levels should these voluntary positions not be agreed.

The government said the proposed measures will see the UK align with many countries across the world such as France and Spain that already have minimum service agreements in place.

Talking to broadcasters following the announcement, Shapps rejected the suggestion that the planned new law would impact on the human rights of trade union members.

He said, “First of all, civilised European nations, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, they all have some form of minimum safety levels.”

He added that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) also has said that there is “nothing wrong” with such a scheme “when it’s a question of life and death.”

“The idea that there may not be an ambulance coming because there’s a strike on, I think, is unacceptable.

“We’re not proposing to go the full hog. Other countries, parts of America, Canada, Australia, they have legislation which bans those blue lights entirely from going on strike.

“We’re not proposing that. I think it’s very reasonable what we’re suggesting but I think the time has come and it brings us into line with other European nations.”

Union Reactions

Trade union leaders have reacted angrily to the planned legislation.

Trades Union Congress General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “This is an attack on the right to strike. It’s an attack on working people, and it’s an attack on one of our longstanding British liberties. It means that when workers democratically vote to strike, they can be forced to work and sacked if they don’t. That’s wrong, unworkable, and almost certainly illegal.”

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, said: “Just when you thought the government could go no lower, ministers say they’re looking to deal with strikes by making them illegal, rather than negotiate with unions.

“PCS members are on strike because they cannot afford the cost of living. We view any attempt to outlaw strikes as an attack on the trade union movement and we will resist that at every stage.”

The opposition Labour Party said it opposes the legislation and that the party would likely repeal any such bill if it wins the next election.

Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer said in a major speech on Thursday that he does not think the legislation idea was going to work.

He said he would “repeal it” should the public put him into Downing Street.

Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves also criticised the plan to make it more difficult for strikes to take place.

She said it amounted to going from “clapping our nurses” during the COVID-19 pandemic to “sacking them.”

PA Media contributed to this report.