LRD guides and handbook September 2017

Taking industrial action - a legal guide

Chapter 11

Rise in unofficial action?

[ch 11: page 68]

Several commentators have predicted a rise in new forms of civil disobedience in the industrial sphere, including wildcat strikes of the kind seen at the Lindsey Oil refinery in 2009, prompted by anger and frustration at increasingly byzantine laws limiting industrial protest. These issues are exacerbated by the spread of precarious working, including growing false self-employment and “zero hours” contracting. Where work is insecure and employment laws fail to protect vulnerable workers, spontaneous unofficial direct protest may appear more accessible for these workers than balloted strikes through a trade union.