The Government has a duty to the public to ensure their safety, protect their access to vital public services, and help them go about their daily lives. Therefore, it has delivered the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act for vital public services including health, education, fire and rescue, transport, nuclear decommissioning, and border security to maintain critical and in many cases life-saving services.
Consultations are currently being held on Minimum Service Levels for ambulances, fire, and rail. While the Act contains provisions for other parts of the NHS, education, nuclear decommissioning, and border security, it is hoped that voluntary agreements will continue to be sufficient.
This new legislation will allow the Government, NHS, the public and other services to plan properly for the running of services in times of strike – and ensure that striking workers are not inadvertently putting the public at risk. This package of measures will see the UK align with many countries across the world such as France and Spain that already have minimum service agreements in place, to prevent large swathes of their economies being ground to a halt by industrial action.
To be absolutely clear, this Act is not about restricting workers’ rights to strike. Simply, it is about balancing the rights of some workers to strike, against the rights of the wider public to get on with their daily lives.