CBI call for restrictions ‘one dimensional’ — TUC

The latest call for strikes to be further restricted, made by the CBI employers’ organisation, has been slammed by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber as “a fundamental attack on basic rights at work that are recognised in every human rights charter.”

Among a range of proposals, the CBI is calling for the voting threshold in favour of the strike mandate to be raised. It wants 40% of all those balloted to be required to vote “yes”. The current position is that a simple majority of those who actually vote must do so. If implemented, the CBI proposal would mean that abstentions and failing to vote would take effect as a vote against the strike, very severely limiting workers’ ability to withdraw their labour.

Similar calls have already been made by free-market campaigners and have been enthusiastically backed by London mayor Boris Johnson.

Barber added that: ‘It is particularly disappointing for the CBI to take such a one-dimensional view of industrial relations in which strikes are always the fault of unions, and never that of management. Strikes are always a last resort as union members lose their pay”.