TORY attacks on the right to strike have seen Britain plummet down global rankings on workers’ rights, a damning new report published today warns.

The government’s “systemic violation of rights” has left the country sitting alongside notorious right-wing regimes in Qatar and Hungary in the global rights index, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) said.

The intervention from the union body, which represents 190 million workers in 167 countries, comes as the widely condemned Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill moves through Parliament.

If passed, the legislation could empower bosses and even ministers to sack workers who refuse to cross their own picket lines and provide an as yet undefined minimum service level during strikes across key industries.

The Bill, alongside changes to regulations last summer which allow bosses to hire temporary agency workers to break strikes, could leave Britain an “international outlier” on workers’ rights, the TUC has stressed.

General secretary Paul Nowak said: “The right to strike is a fundamental freedom — but the Conservative government seems hell-bent on undermining it.

“The UK already has some of the most restrictive trade union laws in Europe — this draconian anti-strike Bill will drag us further away from mainstream norms.

“There is no good reason for these new anti-strike curbs — they will poison industrial relations and do nothing to resolve current disputes.”

Mr Nowak urged ministers, who are panicking amid the biggest strike wave to sweep the country since the 1980s, to “see sense and ditch this Bill without delay.”

Tonia Nowitz, professor of labour law at the University of Bristol, blasted the “alarming” developments.

“There has been a dangerous decline in the UK’s international ranking and reputation,” she stressed.