In response to an ongoing wave of industrial strike action from public sector workers, the government has introduced a new Bill which will allow it to set the minimum levels of service which must be met during strikes to ensure the safety of the public and their access to certain public services.

The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill aims to ensure crucial public services such as transport, education, health and fire services maintain a minimum service during industrial action, reducing risk to life and ensuring the public can still get to their place of work.

If passed, the Bill will allow an employer to give a “work notice” to trade unions that levels of service under minimum service regulations are to apply in relation to a strike. Even though the employer would have to consult with unions, as drafted, the Bill gives the employer the ability to impose the requirement to work.

The work notice would identify workers, regardless of union membership, required to work during the strike in order to secure minimum service levels, and specify the work required to be carried out by them during the strike. If workers are listed in the work notice strike, they could lose the right to protection from unfair dismissal.

Currently, dismissal for participating in industrial action which has been lawfully organised is automatically unfair. This means that there is no two years’ service requirement before the employee can claim unfair dismissal – it is a day one right. The dismissal is automatically deemed to be unfair in the sense that the employer cannot offer a justification; if the sole or principal reason for the dismissal is the participation in trade union activities, the employee’s claim will succeed. Under the new Bill, this protection falls away for anyone subject to the work notice, who strikes despite its existence.

The Bill has faced criticism, with it being argued that it should only apply to safety-critical roles where there is a risk to life and not to the education and transport industries, for example. It is also seen by unions as an attack on the lawful right to strike and an interference with Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights which protects “the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of [his] interests”.

In light of this, it’s unlikely that similar provisions will be introduced to the private sector any time soon, as the correct balance between employers’ need to ensure minimum levels of service provision and workers’ right to strike will likely not be met.

However, in the current climate, private sector employers are likely to see an upturn in union membership and a greater interest in union recognition amongst their workforces whilst industrial action and the cost of living remains such a prevalent topic. Just recently, hundreds of workers at Amazon voted to go on strike in response to a 3% pay increase from the company, which employees say fails to match the cost of living.