Angela Rayner said repealing the legislation was the first part of the party's plan to "reset industrial relations so they are fit for a modern economy”
The Labour government announced today it will axe the anti-strike law brought in by the previous Conservative administration in a welcome move for workers’ rights.
Britain’s new Government has said it will be repealing the controversial Strikes Act legislation which gave ministers sweeping powers to extend minimum service levels across the economy, and could be used to force striking workers back to work or risk losing their job.
In the announcement today, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said Labour was scrapping the “pointless law” and instead creating a new partnership between business, trade unions and working people through the New Deal.
“Attempting to clamp down on the fundamental freedom of working people has got us nowhere and this was targeted at sectors who dedicate their lives to serving us all,” said Rayner.
“Repealing this legislation is the first part of our plan to reset industrial relations so they are fit for a modern economy.”
Trade unions had described the legislation as “unworkable and undemocratic”, as Paul Nowak, leader of the Trades Union Congress responded, “it speaks volumes that not one employer was daft enough to use the Tories vindictive” law.
Strike action in the NHS alone cost the taxpayer £1.7bn in 2023 as Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting highlighted how the legislation had failed to resolve a single dispute, and that Labour will focus instead on “strong but fair negotiations” to tackle issues between workers and employers.
The move has left Tory politicians fuming, with former Tory party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith coming out to attack the return of the hard-won workers’ rights.
Duncan Smith said: “Welcome back to the 1970s. The hardline Left are back. This is the beginning of radical change that will give power to the unions to strike at will.”
Shadow Health Secretary Victoria Atkins was also quoted in the Daily Mail criticising the reversal of the minimum service laws and said that scrapping the laws would threaten “safe staffing levels” in hospitals. However unions representing health workers have long argued that safe staffing levels had already been compromised by the Tory government, due to cuts and dire staff retention levels, not strikes.
Wes Streeting, said: “Scrapping minimum service levels marks another significant step in resetting relationships with staff, as we fix the broken health service.”
(Image credit: Number 10 / Flickr)
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward
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