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Protesters during the demonstration in Parliament Square, London, against the Government's controversial legislation on minimum levels of service during strikes, which unions warn could lead to workers being sacked for legally voting to take industrial action. Picture date: Monday May 22, 2023.
THE United Nations launched an “embarrassing” attack on the Tory government’s latest assault on unions and the right to strike today.
In a rare but damning intervention, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the UN workers’ rights watchdog, reminded Downing Street that its legislation must comply with international law.
The agency instructed ministers to seek technical assistance from ILO staff and report back on progress in September. It is the first call of its kind to be applied to Britain in nearly three decades.
The ILO directly rejected claims from ministers that the body backed the widely condemned Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill, which is currently going through Parliament.
The legislation would empower bosses, and even ministers, to sack workers who refuse to cross picket lines and provide an as yet undefined minimum service level during walkouts in key industries, including health, transport and education.
The threatened move has been condemned by the labour movement, MPs and peers of all parties, unions across Europe and international rights bodies as a draconian step that would leave Britain as an international outlier.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “This is hugely embarrassing for the Conservative government and speaks to the scale of anti-union attacks on their watch.
“The right to strike is a fundamental freedom, but the Conservatives are attacking it in broad daylight with the draconian Strikes Bill.
“Ministers have been falsely claiming the ILO’s support for a spiteful piece of legislation which only serves to drag us further away from democratic norms.
“The truth is that the UK already has some of the most restrictive trade union laws in Europe. These new anti-strike curbs will poison industrial relations and do nothing to resolve current disputes.
“It’s time to ditch the pernicious strikes Bill for good and protect the right to strike.”
The ILO also repeated its call for the government to review the 2016 Trade Union Act, which imposed yet another layer of expensive and complicated bureaucracy on union activity following decades of Tory and New Labour attacks on workers, and for ministers to “consult more” with unions and employers on legislation.
And it added that unions should also be allowed to use electronic ballots instead of slower and more expensive postal votes.
