A change in the law enabling businesses to supply skilled agency workers to plug staffing gaps during industrial action has been unveiled by the government. Under current trade union laws employment businesses are restricted from supplying temporary agency workers to fill duties by employees who are taking part in strikes. According to the government, this can have a disproportionate impact, including on important public services, causing severe disruption to the economy and society - from preventing people from getting to work to creating challenges for how businesses manage their workforce. Union confederation TUC says, “the plans are absurd”. The union claims that the use of agency workers to replace striking workers will violate trade union members’ right to strike which is safeguarded by ILO Convention.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.