United Kingdom -Outrage at draft Trade Union Bill -July 15, 2015

Trade unions have called the draft Trade Union Bill presented by the government an outright attack on workers’ rights. The Conservative government has submitted a bill in the Parliament that can seriously impede trade union rights in the public sector, first and foremost making it nearly impossible to take industrial action. The draft law intents to change the way trade union members are balloted over industrial action. Instead of counting all votes cast against and in favour, the bill sets out a policy in vital services to count abstentions and uncast votes as opposed to industrial action; the list of vital public services currently includes nurses, teachers, train drivers, border force staff, fire fighters and workers in nuclear decommissioning. In non-vital public services, a 50% turnout threshold is introduced. Furthermore, the law would limit any industrial action to a four month time period, after which a new ballot would be required, and the ballot needs to include a clear description of both the dispute and the planned actions.

English: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/key-public-sector-workers-face-ban …  

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/trade-union-strike-law-reforms-qa …

For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.

Check Out WageIndicator's Newsletters on Gig Work

News Archive

Loading...