The government is planning to implement anti-strike legislation, giving it the power to force striking workers back to their jobs. The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 10 January 2023 by Grant Shapps, business secretary and the minister tasked with bringing the legislation through parliament. The legislation could potentially allow bosses to force striking employees back to work or sack them.

January saw a wave of strike action across the UK workforce including NHS nurses and ambulance workers, bus drivers, rail workers and, in February, teachers. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) said in December 2022 that this was due to a ‘common cause: a pay disaster that means workers are being paid less in real terms now than they were 14 years ago’.

The Conservatives have been vocal in their criticism of the strikes. In a speech to the country on 4 January, prime minister Rishi Sunak said: ‘The right to strike has to be balanced with the right of the British public to be able to go about their lives without suffering completely undue disruption.’ Shapps said anyone opposing the anti-strike bill is ‘putting lives at risk’.

The proposed bill would allow employers to serve their employees ‘work notices’, which would force union members to continue working during strike action. This would ensure that employers reached their minimum service levels. If workers disobeyed and chose to strike, they would risk being sacked. Shapps stipulated that there would be a range of minimum service levels, depending on the sector, and that he hoped the government wouldn’t be required to use the legislation.

There has been loud, widespread criticism of the bill. Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer affirmed that Labour would reverse it, should it be voted into law, while the deputy Labour leader, Angela Rayner, called the bill ‘shoddy [and] unworkable’. The bill is expected to face numerous legal challenges, if it is implemented, for potentially breaching treaties such as the European Convention on Human Rights.

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), told the Guardian that the ‘draconian' legislation 'might be illegal’. Lynch, who has become a household name due to his direct, unapologetic media presence, said this latest move by the government was a suppression of 'democratic rights and human rights’. His counterpart at the TUC, Paul Nowak, also vowed that his office would have no problem taking legal action against the government. Unions are planning to hold a united day of strike action on 1 February to express their anger at the proposed bill.