Government’s anti-strikes bill defeated in the House of Lords

Last week saw a string of defeats for the government's Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill in the House of Lords.  

This legislation would allow ministers, by regulation, to impose minimum service levels (MSLs) on services within six sectors – including schools, the NHS, fire and rail - that would apply during periods of strike action. A work notice issued by the employer would then name those individuals required to work and the duties to be undertaken. Those workers deemed to have breached a work notice would lose the legal protection usually given to strikers and could be sacked. 

We've said all along that this bill threatens our fundamental right to strike. It is unnecessary and counter-productive - even according to the government's own impact assessment. And it is anti-democratic, handing huge powers to ministers to dictate anti-strike service levels without proper parliamentary scrutiny. We've called for this bill to be rejected and repealed. 

So it was good to see a combination of Labour, Lib Dem, crossbench peers and bishops vote in support of amendments that neutered the worst bits of this terrible legislation, including: 

• keeping the protection from unfair dismissal for individual workers who fail to comply with the forced work notices imposed by employers. 

• removing the requirement on unions to have to encourage their own members to break strikes. 

• taking devolved governments and service providers in Scotland and Wales out of the bill. 

What's next

The legislation will go back to the Commons – probably in the middle of May. MPs will debate and take votes on the amendments and the government's majority will obviously tell. The bill will then go back to the Lords, giving peers an opportunity to respond and potentially vote in support of those amendments again – a process known in parliament as ping pong. 

We hope now that the government will take into account the concerns of the Lords – as well as employer groups such as NHS Providers and CIPD along with regulatory bodies including the Regulatory Policy Committee and Joint Committee on Human Rights – and use this opportunity to withdraw the bill. And we will be following this up with ministers. 

The TUC will, of course, continue to campaign against this bill. We’ll be asking our members to write to MPs asking them to support the amendments at the next stage in parliament. We’ll be protesting in Westminster on the evening the bill returns to the Commons – publicly calling for MPs to reject the bill and for opposition parties to reiterate their commitment to repealing this legislation if elected to power. And we will support any union or individual member who finds themselves on the wrong side of this legislation should it ever become law. 

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