Ban on using agency workers to replace striking workers

Since 1973, there has been a ban on using agency workers to replace striking workers, or to cover the work of employees of the hirer assigned to cover the work of striking workers, in official (but not unofficial) industrial action (Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, regulation 7).

This ban reflects the position of the ILO, which is that using replacement workers to break a strike is a breach of ILO Convention 87 (Freedom of association and the right to organise). ILO Recommendation 188 on private employment agencies states that “private employment agencies should not make workers available to a user enterprise to replace workers of that enterprise who are on strike”.

Repeal of this ban has been a long-standing aim of the Conservative Party, and draft regulations to achieve this — the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2015 — were published some time ago. However, the ban currently remains in place.

Employment agencies and businesses have a defence if they did not know industrial action was planned, so it is important to put them on written notice of strike plans.