TUC steps up resistance to rollout of minimum service level legislation
Trade unions have voted to resist contentious new UK anti-strike laws that require some employees in sensitive public services to keep working during industrial action.
Delegates at the Trades Union Congress in Liverpool almost unanimously backed a “non-compliance” motion put forward by the Fire Brigades Union and NASUWT, the teacher’s union, despite misgivings from some unions.
Unions are furiously opposed to the Conservative government’s new legislation, which allows ministers to enforce minimum levels of service in eight areas of the economy including ambulance, fire and rail services. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has promised to reverse it if he wins the next general election.
The motion passed on Monday required the TUC to hold a special conference “to explore options for non-compliance and resistance” to the new minimum service levels. However, union leaders and officials stressed this did not mean members would break the law.
“What we are saying is, we should build a movement which has the potential to do that,” Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, told the Financial Times. “And actually unions may be in a position where they end up breaking the law whether they choose to or not, and what do you do in those circumstances?”
The legislation was rushed through parliament just before the summer recess. The government is currently consulting on measures to implement it, including a code of practice requiring unions to identify members who were required to work, encourage them to do so and make sure that pickets did not dissuade them.
A government spokesperson said: “The purpose of this legislation is to protect the lives and livelihoods of the general public and ensure they can continue to access vital public services during strikes.” They added the law “does not remove the ability to strike”.
Unions say the law is unworkable and that it is unclear how far they are expected to go in actively urging their members to turn up to work on strike days.
Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT transport workers’ union — whose rail members could become the first targeted under the new law — told the TUC that unless unions stood up against it, the government could extend minimum service agreements across the entire economy.
It was “a nonsense” to imagine that unions would instruct their members to go to work during a strike if employers identified them in a work notice as needed to maintain service levels, Lynch said, adding: “We will not be complying with that”.
Other unions were more nuanced in their support for the motion. Davina Camadoo, an assistant organiser at the PCS civil service union, said unions must be prepared to take their fight against the legislation through a combination of mass protests, legal challenges and “where possible, non compliance”.
One union figure said concerns were expressed last week during a meeting of the TUC’s General Council, its governing body, with some officials worried about negative headlines in the right-wing newspapers. “They didn’t want headlines in the Daily Mail saying ‘unions plan to break the law’,” he added.
Another union leader said privately that it was not realistic for unions to call for non-compliance, but that they could envisage a scenario in which the minimum service legislation led to workers being dismissed and other union members taking “spontaneous” action in response.
Source: Financial Times
