Sunak plays good cop/bad cop on strikes

As trade unions met this afternoon to discuss the possibility of a general strike, the government upped the ante by tabling an anti-strike bill in parliament.

Under this new piece of legislation – “to protect the public” – public sector services would be legally required to provide a minimum level of service even during strike days. Employers could sue trade unions or sack workers who failed to comply. 

The law would apply to the NHS, transport, education, fire and rescue, border security, and nuclear decommissioning. To meet minimum staffing levels, employers would be able to issue a “work notice” stating the workforce they require and those named would lose their right to protection from unfair dismissal if they went on strike anyway. Ministers are yet to consult on how exactly they would define “minimum service.”

The government insists there is nothing hardline about its proposed legislation. As Grant Shapps, the business secretary, correctly points out, similar laws already exist in many other European countries including France and Germany.

But this hasn’t stopped unions from reacting with fury and threatening to lodge a legal challenge to such a law. Union bosses appear to be raising the stakes too. This afternoon, those representing staff in the NHS, rail, education and civil service met at the Trades Union Congress headquarters in London to discuss holding a coordinated “day of action” across the public sector in an attempt to ramp up pressure on the government to revise its pay offers. 

Aside from enraging unions, the minimum service bill is no solution to strike disruption in the short-term. Any legislation would certainly not have an impact on strikes this month, including the ambulance service walk-out tomorrow and two days of nurses strikes scheduled for next week. In fact, as the bill is likely to meet with resistance as it goes through the House of Lords, few expect the minimum service rules to be in law before summer at the earliest. 

More immediate action is needed to break the deadlock. That said, the round of talks which took place yesterday between ministers and health, rail and education unions have raised tentative hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations – and, at least for NHS staff, hope of a possible new pay deal. 

The government is understood to be considering offering health workers a lump-sum in the form of a hardship payment to get them through the winter. And, according to Unison’s Sara Gorton, health secretary Steve Barclay has also agreed to discuss the possibility of backdating a future pay deal despite having insisted for weeks that the pay deal for 2022-23 was closed. 

This hint of progress didn’t stop the unions from expressing post-talk frustration that no concrete pay offer had emerged. Yet the mere fact that ministers are apparently now willing to discuss pay at all is a shift in stance. Further talks are expected later this week, as well as negotiations between Barclay and the Treasury.

While the government is keen to appear tough in the Commons by bringing forward its new anti-strike legislation, it seems its tone may well be softening behind the scenes.