Staffing Strikes

Towards the end of 2022, whilst riding the wave of strike action in the rail sector, the government introduced new legislation imposing restrictions on the right to strike and the need to meet minimum service levels. The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill will apply to the education sector, along with many other public sectors.

Under the Bill, an employer facing a strike will be able to serve a ‘work notice’ on the union identifying the employees that it needs to meet the service levels required. Once notice is given, the union is under a duty to take all reasonable steps to ‘ensure that all members of the union who are identified in the work notice comply with it and continue to work’. Any union that doesn't comply will lose its immunity from being sued and, employees who refuse to turn up to work in breach of the notice can be fairly dismissed (provided a fair procedure is followed).

Whilst the government intends to set minimum service levels in respect of the fire, ambulance and rail sectors, it expects the education sector to reach 'sensible and voluntary' agreements with unions to deliver a reasonable level of service during strike action. Wishful thinking? If that doesn't happen, the government can impose minimum service levels.

The difficulty for the education sector is that the Bill doesn't provide any guiding principles to explain how that minimum level of service will be determined. That will be left to separate regulations which have yet to be published.

JP view: If this Bill makes it to the statute books, which won’t happen until the current strikes are over, the devil will be in the detail. Legal advice on implementation is going to be needed unless additional regulations make legal rights and obligations crystal clear. We live in hope.