UK Govt Unveils 'minimum Safety Levels' Law To Stifle Strikes

London, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Jan, 2023 ) :The UK government will on Tuesday introduce proposals mandating "minimum safety levels" during strikes, angering unions which have branded it "undemocratic" and threatened legal challenges.

The new law will require minimum levels of service during industrial action from various workers, including ambulance staff, firefighters and railway employees, to maintain their "basic function".

It follows months of disruptive walk-outs across the private and public sectors, as decades-high inflation fuels the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation and demands for hefty pay rises.

"I don't think any civilised society should have a situation where we can't get agreement to... have an ambulance turn up on a strike day for the most serious of all types of ailments," business Secretary Grant Shapps told Times Radio.

"Other countries like Germany and France and elsewhere do have minimum safety levels in place and we want to make sure that we're doing the same thing to protect the British people." But unions locked in pay disputes with the government and employers savaged the draft legislation, which is set to be introduced in parliament by Shapps early Tuesday afternoon.

They argue that it undermines the right to strike.

"This legislation would mean that when workers democratically vote to strike, they can be forced to work and sacked if they don't comply," the general secretary of the TUC, Paul Nowak, said.

"That's undemocratic, unworkable, and almost certainly illegal," he added, hinting at likely legal challenges to the bill if it becomes law.