The ETUC congratulates the TUC and their affiliated trade unions on an important union victory for workers in Britain and throughout Europe. We welcome the commitment by the UK government that the anti-worker anti-strike Minimum Service Levels legislation will be repealed through the upcoming Employment Rights Bill. This legislation represented an attack on the ability of workers to win a decent, secure and dignified working life.
We welcome this commitment to improve the law on the right to strike which will help bring the UK back in line with European and international labour standards. The ETUC joins the TUC in calling for full and rapid implementation of the commitments in Labour’s plan to Make Work Pay so that working people throughout the UK are able to join a union without fear and have their right to organise along with their right to collectively bargain and to take strike action, properly recognised and protected. An important measure is guaranteeing trade union access to workplaces to meet with workers.
From the initial proposal of the anti-strike legislation, the ETUC had raised that it would have undermined the integrity of social standards in the EU, and that as such it likely constituted a breach of the post-Brexit agreement. The European Commission rightly raised the issue at the Trade and Cooperation Agreement Level Playing Field Committee, putting additional political pressure on the previous UK government’s rogue attempt to implement this anti-worker legislation.