Conservative threats to industrial action laws

In advance of the 2015 general election the Conservatives made a manifesto pledge on industrial action that unions warn if implemented, will make strikes close to impossible in this country. Here is a summary of the main Conservative plans to change industrial action law:

• any industrial action to have to meet a 50% balloting threshold. In other words, at least 50% of members eligible to vote would be required to take part in the ballot in order for industrial action to be lawful, and of those who vote, a simple majority (i.e. at least 25%+1 of all eligible members) would need to vote in favour of the action;

• for “essential services” — public sector workers in health, education, transport and fire, the threshold to be even higher. Workers would be unable to take action without the support of at least 40% of those workers who are eligible to vote. In other words, not only would at least 50% of the eligible workforce have to vote but in addition, more than 40% of the eligible workforce would have to vote in favour of the action;

• a review of “minimum service levels” in “essential services”;

• the balloting paper to change, to require the inclusion of detailed information about the nature of the dispute, the intended time of the action, its length and the reason for taking it, all of which members would be required to vote on;

• the Code of Practice on Picketing to be tightened up and made legally binding, making unsanctioned picketing a criminal offence;

• longer notice of intended action to be required and time-limits after a ballot introduced, making it much harder to implement a programme of rolling industrial action;

• the ban on replacing striking workers with agency workers to be lifted (see page 263). This would mean, for example, that schools would be able to use agency supply staff to replace striking teachers.

Carr Inquiry into “trade union tactics” abandoned

The Carr inquiry, a political inquiry set up by the Conservatives to discredit trade unions following the Grangemouth refinery dispute, was abandoned in August 2014. The review, headed by Bruce Carr QC, was set up to examine whether the anti-trade union laws should be tightened to prevent “intimidation” and “harassment”. Carr announced that he would be making no recommendations due to lack of evidence of either intimidation or harassment on which to base any findings, and also due to the “progressively politicised environment” in the run-up to the 2015 general election, especially after the Conservative Party announced its manifesto pledge to limit industrial action and to criminalise picketing (see box above) without waiting for the results of the inquiry.