Strike Laws: Sunak or Churchill?
In a few weeks, the new minimum service levels strike laws will mean that workers in certain sectors — including education, transport and the NHS — will be deterred from striking.
Where an employer issues a work notice to those who have voted in favour a strike, it can coerce those strikers to work. It effectively bans many (up to 80% in some cases) of those workers from going on strike, for fear of each losing any protection against unfair dismissal. Their union could also be subjected to damages of as much as £1 million. This is an attempt to ‘de-fang’ strikes meaning many individuals who plan to strike being prevented from doing so.
These ‘work notices’ are nothing less than an employer forcing strikers to ignore the planned strike and to go to work.
For history buffs, Winston Churchill is a great wartime PM but he is not always seen as a friend of the worker. However, he wrote:
“…the right to strike is the foundation…we must therefore regard this right as one of the most precious enjoyed by human beings, and however much we suffer from its abuse we must understand that our civilisation is not only dignified by, but is dependent upon, its preservation…the foundation of the right to strike lies in the defence of personal liberties, in choosing or changing employment or bargaining with an employer for better wages and conditions”.
The wartime government of the early 1940s adopted powers to stop strikes and industrial action, but not since those dark days of threatened invasion has the British government adopted powers to force British workers to work.
This historical perspective in my opinion makes the new minimum service levels strike laws concerning.
Author: David Sorensen, Managing Partner.
