Strike-breaker plan is passed by parliament

MPs have approved plans to allow firms to use agency workers to replace striking staff in public services such as transport, healthcare and education, despite opposition from the union movement and beyond.


Passed on Monday night by 289 votes to 202, the draft Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2022 are widely seen as a rushed government response to the rail strike (see Fact Service issue 24).


Rail unions were quick to respond, with ASLEF branding the move “a scab’s charter” and the RMT describing it as “morally reprehensible and totally impracticable”.


Ahead of the vote the TUC had urged MPs to reject the ”pernicious anti-union measures” as a threat to public safety.


Outgoing TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The right to strike is a fundamental British liberty. The government wants to undermine this right and deploy agency workers as strike-breakers across the economy – including on the railways. 


“Using agency workers to try and break strikes would put these workers in an appalling situation, worsen disputes and poison industrial relations.”


The union body reminded MPs that it had been joined in its opposition to the plans by REC, the recruitment agency professional body, and that the legislative changes might even be illegal, since there has been no consultation with unions on them, as required by the Employment Agencies Act 1973.


https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2022/9780348236675


https://aslef.org.uk/news/aslef-slams-tory-moves-agency-workers


https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-responds-to-mps-passing-agency-worker-bill-to-break-strikes


https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/tuc-and-rec-urge-government-abandon-plan-allow-agency-staff-replace-striking-workers