No-strike law is back

The government has introduced new legislation banning prison officers in England and Wales from taking industrial action.

The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (CJIA) came into effect on 8 May — the same day the Prison Officers’ Association’s (POA) voluntary no-strike agreement ended. The new law re-introduces a ban included in section 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 but goes further. Where section 127 outlawed industrial action, section 138 of the CJIA makes it a criminal offence for prison officers to take any action that “would be likely to put at risk the safety of any person”.

POA general secretary Brian Caton said that the act, which concerns criminal justice not industrial action, had gone through with “some haste” and that Section 138 is unclear in its meaning.

The POA is challenging the government through the European Court of Human Rights.