THE TUC is mounting an international challenge to “unworkable” Tory anti-strike legislation, which makes Britain even more of a pariah than it already was, the union body said today.

It’s challenging the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act through the United Nations’ Geneva-based workers’ rights arm, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and is being backed by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which represents 45 million trade unionists.

The ETUC said anti-union laws already make it harder for working people in Britain to take strike action than in any other Western European country.

The Strikes Act forces striking workers to break their own action and cross their own picket lines to provide services in sectors such as rail and bus services.

A government minister will dictate what a “minimum level of service” will be.

Failure to comply will enable the government to prosecute and bankrupt trade unions.

The international legal action was announced ahead of the TUC’s annual conference in Liverpool today by TUC general secretary Paul Nowak, ETUC general secretary Esther Lynch and two front-line workers.

Mr Nowak said the Strikes Act “falls way short” of standards demanded by the ILO.

“And that’s why we have submitted a case to the ILO over these new laws,” he said.

“Unions defeated the government in the High Court over the unlawful use of agency workers during strikes. We are determined to win again.”

He said the laws were designed to increase conflict at work, not resolve it and were “unworkable, undemocratic and almost certainly in breach of international law.”

He accused the government of “spoiling for a fight with unions to distract from their dire economic record.”

Under the Tories, millions of workers are forced onto zero-hours contracts — which doesn’t guarantee work — while protection against unfair dismissal has been reduced. Companies have also been able to fire workers and rehire them on worse pay and conditions — or replace them with cheaper labour, as seen with P&O Ferries and its 800 seafarers early last year.

Fees for unfair dismissal cases at tribunals were introduced.

Mr Nowak said: “The Strikes Act is the nadir of the Conservatives’ wretched record on living standards and rights at work.”

He said workers’ rights would be a major factor at the next general election, and that while the Tories’ priority was to attack working people, Labour had pledged to give workers more rights.

They include protection from unfair dismissal from day one of employment, banning fire and rehire and zero-hours contracts and repealing the Strikes Act in the first 100 days in power.

Ms Lynch said the legislation was “a fundamental attack on the right to strike” and would make the UK “an international outlier on trade union rights and labour standards.”

She said the legislation could affect Britain’s trade deals with Europe.

“We believe that the Strikes Act breaches two of the UK’s commitments in its post-Brexit trade agreement with the EU,” she said.

“Firstly its commitment to maintaining a level playing field including on labour standards.

“And secondly its commitment to respecting fundamental ILO conventions.

“This could expose the UK to potentially hefty economic sanctions,” she said.

Since Tory attacks on unions and workers’ rights began under the Thatcher government in the 1980s, trade union membership has dropped from 13.5 million to 5.5 million.

After the 1997 Labour government came to power, it failed to repeal all Tory anti-union laws but did make concessions including giving workers the right to be represented by unions which employers had to recognise.