TUC president blasts ‘vindictive and pernicious’ legislation that blocks trade unionists’ ‘fundamental human rights’
He said his union will "always campaign vociferously so that legislation is changed to right that wrong".
Trade unionists from across the country are gathering in Brighton this week for the annual Trades Union Congress (TUC). At the event, delegates will hear from a number of keynote speakers and debate the trade union movement’s position and strategy on key political and industrial issues.
Opening the event, TUC President Steve Gillan used his address to criticise the anti-union laws which restricts the rights of members of his union – the Prison Officers’ Association (POA).
Gillan told delegates: “I’m immensely proud to come from the POA – a union stripped of its basic fundamental human rights, barred from taking any form of industrial action for the last 32 years”.
Prison officers were banned from taking industrial action through the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, introduced by John Major’s government.
He went on to brand that legislation affecting prison officers a “vindictive and pernicious piece of legislation’, and said that the “POA will always campaign vociferously so that legislation is changed to right that wrong”.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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