A BAN on prison officer strikes should be repealed in a second Employment Rights Bill, the Prison Officers Association (POA) has said.

New Labour failed to deliver on its pledge to reinstate the right the Tories removed when the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act was passed in 1994. 

POA general secretary Steve Gillan said: “Banning the right to strike is the action of repressive and totalitarian regimes.

“Britain is supposed to be a democracy — that should include industrial democracy and universal human rights; the right to withdraw one’s labour is a fundamental human right recognised by the International Labour Organisation, it is used as a last resort when all other avenues have been exhausted.

“Prison officers are working in one of the most hostile and dangerous working environments there is. 

“This is being fuelled by overcrowding, understaffing, drugs and contraband entering prisons and decades of underfunding of the justice system. 

“It is an affront to these committed public servants that they have been singled out and discriminated against.”

The Bill could include an immediate repeal of all anti-union laws and a full ban on “fire and rehire” enforceable by injunction, said the union.

The POA added that it could end of all zero-hours contracts, introduce a £15 per hour minimum wage with no age exemptions, a statutory right to collective bargaining for all workers and a legal mechanism for creating sector-wide collective bargaining.

POA national chairman Mark Fairhurst said: “Labour’s integrity as a government must be called into question in relation to their manifesto pledge to eradicate anti-trade union legislation.”

A government spokesperson said: “Our Employment Rights Act is already delivering for over 18 million people, putting more money into the pockets of working people.

“We have no plans to review current legislation on industrial action for prison officers, but we have a robust system in place to compensate them for their critical work in keeping the public safe.”