Strikes Bill UK: Striking the Right Legal Balance

Strikes-Bill-UK-1

Industrial actions over the past months have highlighted the difficulties for both organisations and individuals in the wake of the pandemic, energy and cost-of-living crisis. As a response to the resulting disruption caused to our public services, the UK government has recently published the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill. But is the Strikes Bill going to help or hinder the ongoing process?

While we wait to see what actually emerges from the Strikes Bill after parliamentary scrutiny, it definitely raises questions with regard to implementation and the way forward for unions, employees and employers alike.

Minimum Service Levels

Firstly, who is going to decide the ‘minimum service levels’ that need to be provided?  

  • Will this vary from industry to industry; or will it be a standard percentage figure – say, to pluck a figure from the air, 20%? If so, would that, for example, be 20% of all scheduled health service appointments going ahead on that particular day, or 20% in each category of illness?
  • Who, in the health service, for example, is going to be responsible for deciding which 20% of appointments, say in oncology, should go ahead? 
  • And how would local/regional train services be weighted against long-distance ones? Would they each have their own 20% targets or would it be 20% of all rail services across the board? And what if someone decides that, actually, on this particular regional rail service, a minimum level of service to passengers actually requires an increase in the number of services that ordinarily run? 
  • And who, to put it finely, is going to pay for all this additional level of bureaucracy?

Re-establishing a Working Relationship

It would be a mistake to think unions take industrial action lightly. Running a legal ballot is an expensive business, and the cost and inconvenience for people striking are not inconsiderable. If nothing else, each day on strike costs them around 0.5% of their annual income, and impacts on pensions etc. 

What must also be remembered is that, after any and every bout of industrial action, strikers and employers have to get back around the table and negotiate an end to the dispute. And, given that they’ll have to negotiate again next year, they need to consider re-establishing their working relationship. 

Legal barriers to strike action are likely to make getting back to work a much more fraught process. Workers are likely to have been frustrated in exercising their legitimate aims and rights, otherwise they wouldn’t have supported the action. Meanwhile, the potential for ‘finger pointing’ has, as a result, been increased. Moves along the lines indicated will almost certainly draw legal challenges over various aspects, not least in relation to the human (and other) rights of those who would no longer be allowed to withdraw their labour. No one wins in either of those scenarios.

Recognising the Need for Change

Furthermore, effective industrial relations – where industrial action is a breakdown in normal relations and a combative approach will inevitably lead to another dispute – stem from the free flow of information within the workplace. And from consultation and negotiation over what that information points to, including recognising the need for change.

Those normal processes need to be reinstated. In some cases, that takes time. In others, it takes superhuman effort. More laws restricting lawful strike action can only make re-establishing these key relationships more difficult.

Ultimately, as much as we might be inconvenienced by strike action, it is primarily a symptom. We’re all much more inconvenienced by ongoing poor industrial relations, by poor negotiation skills and/or ineffective collective bargaining culture. Although, of course, these are all far less visible. 

So, it’s important to keep in mind that good industrial relations are about dialogue, respectful disagreement and collective problem-solving. Any law that is to be effective in helping the process rather than hindering it would have to be careful not to see industrial relations as inevitably combative. Or take a superficial view of workplace problems which lead to industrial action. Otherwise, it seems only likely to increase the amount of poor industrial relations that we experience.

We’d be interested to know your thoughts on this, so please leave a comment. And if you’d like to discuss this topic more directly, please contact us or give Malcolm a call on 07736 068787.

READ ALL OUR NEWS


Strikes-Bill-UK-1

January 13, 2023

Strikes Bill UK: Striking the Right Legal Balance

Industrial actions over the past months have highlighted the difficulties for both organisations and individuals in the wake of the pandemic, energy and cost-of-living crisis.

Read More >

Lewis

October 27, 2022

Failures in Communication: Stormy Seas ahead for Workplace Relations

The latest events in British politics show us how damaging the results of failures in communication can be. 

Read More >

Boreray-yellow

July 1, 2022

Stormy Industrial Seas

I’m just back from the wonderful experience of visiting St Kilda. 

Read More >

Bass-Rock

February 23, 2022

Get Past No in Negotiations & Disputes

How a change in perspective can help with dispute resolution

Read More >

PXL_20210301_115243788-1-edited-scaled

March 10, 2021

"I’d rather struggle and complain!"

Have you ever found yourself dealing with someone who refuses to see a solution you find blindingly obvious, but refuses to take it? You’re not alone!

Read More >

DSC_0015-scaled

January 19, 2021

Are you listening?

One of the keys to successful negotiation is to listen and understand what’s REALLY being said by the ‘other side’. As a mediator and negotiator, listening is my stock in trade, but that doesn’t mean it happens easily.

Read More >

IMG_20200101_135012

November 24, 2020

Winning arguments with yourself?

I recently spoke with Roxanne Kerr of Helix Trauma Therapies for her regular podcast. We set out to discuss why conflict occurs. I enjoyed the conversation and I thought I’d share the result.

Read More >

I35012

October 12, 2020

International Mediation Training

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been privileged to deliver mediation skills training on a number of occasions for the ITCILO, writes Strathesk Re:solutions Founding Director, Malcolm Currie.

Read More >

DSCN0184-scaled

June 15, 2020

Legal mediation: time to start talking!

With court business still at a low ebb, there has never been a better time to consider mediation. Find out how online mediation works, where to access it and how you can try it out

Read More >

header-citypsychologygroup

April 28, 2020

A Day to Remember

Forget-me-not - this year International Workers’ Memorial Day has a special poignancy. 

Read More >

Edinburgh-skyline-scaled

March 30, 2020

Looking Beyond Lockdown

It’s the end of our first week in lockdown, so I thought I’d share my reflections on how I, and my business, are being affected.

Read More >

PANO_20190810_161239

February 28, 2020

Governing Change at Work

There has been a lot of discussion about corporate governance in recent years, even more about the place of the workforce within that. 

Read More >

White-fronted-kingfisher-Bharatpur

November 8, 2019

Taking Mediation to the Next Level

About a year ago, Founding Director of Strathesk Re:solutions, Malcolm Currie, undertook to take his mediation to the next level. Sounds good! But what on Earth does it mean?

Read More >

sr-blog-1

July 11, 2019

Lessons from staying in the middle

Malcolm Currie, a member of CEDR's Training Faculty shares his experience of being a Rugby Referee Coach and a Trade Union Negotiator and the lessons he has learnt from them.

Read More >

IMG-20190506-WA0006

May 23, 2019

Taking a Long Look at Yourself…

One of the disciplines that underpins mediation is the benefit that comes from reflecting on how a recent process has run. But it’s a habit that can have much wider benefits.

Read More >

IMG_20190410_192757

April 17, 2019

Reflections from Tbilisi

Read More >

sr-blog-3

January 31, 2019

To mediate, or not to mediate, that is the question

Despite that, many employers have been slow to adopt mediation as an approach, often reluctant to put it in place early enough to prevent some situations becoming intractable. 

Read More >

sr-blog-4

November 20, 2018

Bullying at work shouldn’t be hidden by ‘playground’ stigma

This is Anti-Bullying Week 2018 (#ABW2018), with a series of events, articles and publications aimed at making the problem of bullying something about which we all know more and are better equipped to stop.

Read More >

sr-blog-5

October 16, 2018

Putting Mental Health in its Proper Workplace…

Last Wednesday was World Mental Health Day 2018.  The day aims to raise awareness of mental health and the issues around it, particularly those that arise from mental ILL-health.

Read More >

sr-blog-6

July 17, 2018

A record year for strikes

The Office of National Statistics has recently published its latest figures around industrial disputes. 

Read More >

sr-blog-7

March 18, 2018

International Women’s Day – is it needed?

Today is International Women’s Day, so I thought it was timely to reflect on perceptions of women’s place in UK societyand ask the question: International Women’s Day – is it needed?

Read More >

sr-blog-8

February 13, 2018

Shared Parental Leave, Another Push?

The Government is running a campaign to encourage new parents to share their parental leave.

Read More >

sr-blog-9

December 14, 2017

Training in Copenhagen

At the end of November I delivered a training course on Advanced Negotiation Skills.

Read More >

sr-blog-10

October 6, 2017

SME Sickness Absence – Prevention or Cure, THAT is the Problem…

Most of my blogs have been about topics in the news that I find interesting, or on which I’d like to provoke a little debate, but this time round I thought I’d take a slightly different approach and reach out to people who.

Read More >

sr-blog-11

July 27, 2017

Good Riddance to Employment Tribunal Fees

Well, it’s been a long time coming, but the Cameron Government’s decision to charge fees for people to raise claims in the Employment Tribunal has finally been shown to be illegal.

Read More >

sr-blog-12

July 10, 2017

Taylor Report on Employment – where now?

We (OK, a few of us) were on tenterhooks waiting for the publication of the Taylor Report into employment practices in the UK, but will it make things clearer or further muddy the waters?

Read More >

sr-blog-13

May 19, 2017

Back to the Future as wages are predicted to stay in the past

In spite of political insistence that the economy is recovering, and has been for a good while, this week the BBC’s Economics Editor has predicted that wages are likely to stagnate for a good while longer.

Read More >

sr-blog-14

April 17, 2017

Trade Unions face big new fines

“The number of working days lost are at historically low levels when looking at the long-run monthly time series back to the 1930s.”

Read More >