New anti-strike legislation to enforce “minimum service levels” in key public sectors including the NHS and schools has drawn an angry reaction from trade unions.
The law, which the government plans to introduce in the coming weeks, will allow bosses in health, education, fire, ambulance, rail and nuclear commissioning to sue unions and sack employees if minimum levels are not met. Under the plans minimum service levels will be set for fire, ambulance and rail services, with the government consulting on the adequate level of coverage for these sectors, to address concerns that disruption to blue-light services puts lives at risk. It will also reserve the power to impose minimum service levels in the other three public services – health, education, nuclear. Union members who were told by their employers to work under the minimum service requirement but refused to do so could lose their jobs. The new law will also back employers bringing an injunction to prevent strikes or seeking damages afterwards if they go ahead.
Sharon Graham, the general secretary of the Unite union, said: “Yet again, Rishi Sunak abdicates his responsibility as a leader. Whatever the latest scheme the government comes up with to attack us, unions will continue to defend workers.”
The general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, Pat Cullen, said curtailing workers’ freedom to participate in lawful industrial action was “always undemocratic” and the union would look closely at the government’s plans next week. She said: “Safe staffing levels that are set in law are what we want to see year-round, not just in these extreme circumstances. “We’ve long campaigned for governments to be accountable for safe and effective staffing levels in the NHS and social care to prevent one nurse being left with 15, 20 or even 25 sick patients..."
Unison’s head of health, Sara Gorton, said: “The public and health staff would welcome minimum staffing levels in the NHS every day of the week. That way, people wouldn’t be lying in agony on A&E floors or dying in the backs of ambulances. But limiting legal staffing levels to strike days and threatening to sack or fine health workers when there are record vacancies in the NHS show proper patient care isn’t what ministers want. The government is picking ill-advised fights with NHS employees and their unions to mask years of dismal failure to tackle pay and staffing.”
Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB, said: “A government that has presided over 13 years of failure in our public services is now seeking to scapegoat the NHS staff and ambulance workers who do so much to care for the people of our country. The NHS can only function with the goodwill of its incredible staff, and attacking their fundamental right to take action will alienate them even further and do nothing to help patients and the public.”
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