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Minimum service levels: Anti-strike law ‘akin to modern slavery’, MPs told [1]

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Date: 2023-02

The government’s plans to give employers powers to force striking workers back to work is akin to modern slavery, legal experts told MPs.

Last month, business secretary Grant Shapps unveiled plans that would require unions to maintain “minimum service levels” in fire and rescue, transport, health and education sectors during strikes.

The bill proposes to allow employers to issue so-called work notices to a proportion of striking workers that require them to return to work. Workers that do not comply with the notices would lose their protections from unfair dismissal.

Legal scholars warned the cross-party MPs on the Joint Committee on Human Rights on Wednesday that the measure could breach Article Four of the Human Rights Act, which prohibits forced labour.

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“Forced labour, as it is defined by the European Court of Human Rights, involves a situation where somebody is required to work under the menace of a penalty. And here the menace of the penalty is potentially dismissal,” said Tonia Novitz, a professor of labour law at the University of Bristol Law School.

“Although Article Four does make an exception for services exacted in case of emergency or calamity, threatening the life or wellbeing of the community, this bill goes well beyond that. And the threat of dismissal is really stark in the context of a cost of living crisis. So yes, I think there is a real analogy to be drawn here with modern slavery.”

Other witnesses told the committee that the bill would effectively require unions to break their own strikes.

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/minimum-service-levels-bill-modern-slavery-human-rights-committee/

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