THE UK Government has been accused of turning “workers into slaves” with new anti-strike laws that could see unions sued.
Roz Foyer, general secretary of the Scottish Trade Union Congress, has condemned the announcement of a bill – set to be published next week and debated the following – which will ensure minimum safety levels during industrial action for services including health and transport.
Unions have threatened legal action given that, if they do not comply with these minimum levels of service, they could be sued by employers.
Foyer branded the bill a “fundamental attack” on democracy.
She told The Nine: “It’s a ridiculous idea. It’s a fundamental attack on the key pillars of our democracy, actually.
“Any healthy democracy knows the difference between slavery and workers and if you withdraw people’s right to take strike action, you’re turning them into slaves.”
"If you withdraw people's right to take strike action, you're turning them into slaves" STUC's Roz Foyer tells #TheNine she believes the UK government is "driving a bulldozer" through workers' rights - "they're doing it on the right to strike... on the right to protest". pic.twitter.com/KI61BJs1Bo
— The Nine (@BBCScotNine) January 5, 2023
Asked if it was really about withdrawing strike action or more about saying there needs to be minimum levels of cover in some sectors, Foyer said it was “absolute cheek” from the UK Government to be talking about minimum standards of service.
She explained there are already arrangements in place for key sectors to provide minimum cover, with several ScotRail services across the country, for example, still running amid several days of industrial action by Network Rail staff.
She added: “The government is talking about minimum standards of cover but the reality is what they’re proposing goes much further than the perfectly adequate arrangements that are already in place whenever emergency services take strike action.
“For this government to talk about maintaining minimum standards is absolute cheek.
“It’s this government’s policies that have got us into this state where we can’t maintain minimum standards across our public services.
“What this government is talking about goes much further than that and what this government is talking about is basically having an excuse to drive a bulldozer through workers’ rights.
“They’re doing it on the right to strike, they’re doing it on the right to protest, they’re looking at taking away a lot of our hard-won EU laws. Mark my words, this is the thin end of the wedge.”
The SNP condemned the proposed bill – which will apply in Scotland, England and Wales but not Northern Ireland – in the “strongest possible terms” on Thursday as business secretary Grant Shapps confirmed plans to press ahead with it.
The party’s deputy leader at Westminster, Mhairi Black, branded the plans “immoral” and said the Tories continue to speak to the “hard-right rhetoric that has Westminster in a choke hold”.
It is likely the bill will face significant opposition in the House of Lords as only transport strikes were mentioned in the Conservatives' manifesto pledge in terms of introducing minimum service levels.
