Union chiefs will vote TODAY on plan to undermine new law designed to ensure a ‘minimum service’ level during public sector strikes – as TUC leader reports Rishi Sunak’s Government to UN watchdog
- Paul Nowak says the legislation falls far short’ of international legal standards
Union leaders will today vote on action to tackle Rishi Sunak’s new anti-strike law designed to limit the impact of walkouts that have hammered the NHS and other public services over the past year.
The TUC conference will hold a ballot on ‘non-compliance’ with the legislation pushed through by Mr Sunak after months of crippling action by workers including nurses, doctors, train staff and civil servants.
In his keynote speech to the event in Liverpool, general secretary Paul Nowak will this morning claim that ‘nothing works in this country anymore and no-one in Government cares’.
He will warn that unions will fight the minimum service rule – which means some workers would have to work for safety reasons instead of striking – ‘every single day until it is repealed’.
He has reported the Government to the United Nations, saying the legislation ‘falls far short’ of international legal standards.
In his keynote speech to the event in Liverpool, general secretary Paul Nowak will this morning claim that ‘nothing works in this country anymore and no-one in Government cares’.
Hundreds of junior doctors stage a rally outside Downing Street as they begin their latest strike over pay, 11 August 2023
The TUC conference will hold a ballot on ‘non-compliance’ with the legislation pushed through by Mr Sunak after months of crippling action by workers including nurses, doctors, train staff and civil servants.
He says the union body will be lodging the case at the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
READ MORE: More NHS strike misery on the way: Both junior doctors and consultants will hold four days of united industrial action from September
Unions will attack the legislation during a debate on Monday, claiming the new law is unnecessary and unworkable and will do nothing to resolve disputes.
Mr Nowak, who took over as TUC leader in December, will use his speech to accuse the Conservatives of having ‘broken Britain’.
He will say: ‘They’ve had 13 years to sort out crumbling concrete in our schools, but five days before the new term they tell schools they can’t open.
‘Because – and I quote the Education Secretary – everyone ”sat on their a**es”.
‘Could you think of a more perfect metaphor for this Government? A crisis of their making, but someone else gets the blame.
‘Yet, this Government that can’t keep our rivers clean, or run trains on time, or run a functioning NHS can find time to attack the right to strike.’
Shadow defence minister Dan Jarvis has pledged that Labour will repeal the law if it wins power at the next election.
He told GB News: ‘The anti-strike legislation was deeply flawed. That’s why we opposed it in Government and Angela Rayner will be speaking at the TUC forum…she will outline all the detail of our plan, a working plan, which the next Labour government would introduce.
‘We’ve said that we will repeal this legislation within the first 100 days of the next Labour government and Angela Rayner will lay out the details of our proposals.’
However Mr Sunak has defended the proposed mass closure of railway station ticket offices as ‘the right thing for the British public’.
The Prime Minister was questioned on his trip to India about plans by train operators to shut nearly all station ticket offices in England amid pressure from the Government to cut costs.
The plan has sparked fierce criticism from opposition politicians, trade unions, disability groups and public transport organisations.
More than 680,000 responses were submitted to the consultation, which ended on September 1.
Concerns were raised by the public and ‘stakeholders’ around the impact on accessibility, safety and security, issues with ticket machines and how stations will be staffed in future, according to watchdogs Transport Focus and London TravelWatch.
An online petition calling for ticket offices to remain open passed 100,000 signatures on Friday, meaning the issue can be considered for debate in Parliament.
He said: ‘It’s right that our railway network is modernised and is put on a sustainable footing.
‘That’s the right thing for the British public and British taxpayers and recognises the fact that I think only one in 10 tickets are sold currently in ticket offices.
‘But this is actually fundamentally, as far as I understand it, about getting people out of ticket offices on to platforms and in stations where they can help people in different ways, which is where the help is required.
‘Those are exactly all the things that we’ll be discussing in the consultation and it wouldn’t be right for me to pre-empt the response or what the conclusions are.’
A Government spokesman 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.
‘The legislation does not remove the ability to strike, but people expect the Government to act in circumstances where their rights and freedoms are being disproportionately impacted, and that’s what we are doing with this Bill.’
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