4. Industrial action

For almost 50 years, there was a ban on the use of agency workers during official industrial action. This 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”.