UK PM Rishi Sunak plans new law to let employers fire workers amid wave of strikes

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday announced that his government will table a legislation that would allow the employers to fire striking staff across the essential sectors soon. It will also enable them to sue trade union workers who refuse to deliver, fail to provide a minimum level of service, and sit on strikes. 

The sectors for which the law would take effect to enforce minimum service levels, include UK’s National Health Service (NHS), the railways, teachers, the fire brigade and the nuclear sector, sources familiar with the development, informed The Times on Jan 5. Striking staff may face consequences, such as legal action and dismissal for breach of contract.

The legislation may be introduced in the British Parliament as soon as next week, the source added. 

Minimum level of service

The new legistlation is aimed at ensuring that a proportion of union members across any sector continues working. In the recent months, UK has faced a wave of protests and strikes, particularly in the rail network sector that has been struggling to keep up with the wages due to the surging inflation.

Sunak’s law states that if the unions refused to provide the minimum level of service, the strikes, in any form, would be illegal.

This implies that British employers can legally challenge unions and/or fire staff under the government's plan that curbs the right of employees to protest. 

The government will lay out the next steps “in the coming days,” Sunak’s office 10 Downing Street said in a statement. The legistlation was promised late last year by Sunak after NHS nurses, ambulance drivers and rail staff went on strike. The barrage of staff strikes across the UK have caused the government its biggest losses in working days since 1989. 

The potential legislation is already facing opposition in the House of Lords by the Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer, who warns that should his party win the election next year in 2024, he would repeal the law.

“We’ll look at what they bring forward, but if it’s further restrictions, then we will repeal it,” Starmer said during a question and answer session following a speech on Thursday. “I do not think that legislation is the way that you bring an end to industrial disputes. You have to get in the room and compromise,” he noted.