Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has confirmed that the new government will scrap controversial strike-busting legislation targeting public sector workers which was introduced last year.
The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 was the brainchild of former chancellor and business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. It gives some employers – including the Department for Transport, the Home Office and the NHS – powers to impose minimum service levels when workers lawfully vote to strike.
Under regulations that came into force in December, employers covered by the act can compel specific staff to work during strike action. Those staff who do not comply can be sacked.
In a statement today, Rayner and business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the legislation undermined workers' rights and had failed to resolve any industrial action since its introduction.
They said the Strikes Act would be repealed by the new Employment Rights Bill that is due to be introduced before the end of November – and that departments that currently have powers to demand minimum service levels were being instructed not to use them.
Rayner said repealing the Strikes Act was the first part of the new government's plan to "reset industrial relations" to make them fit for a modern economy.
"Attempting to clamp down on the fundamental freedom of working people has got us nowhere and this was targeted at sectors who dedicate their lives to serving us all," she said.
"That’s why we’re scrapping this pointless law and creating a new partnership between business, trade unions and working people through our 'New Deal'."
Reynolds said the Strikes Act had not worked and that the public sector had lost billions of pounds to strike days, which the "divisive laws" had failed to help resolve.
"By removing minimum service levels, we will reset industrial relations, so they are based on good faith negotiation and bargaining, ending the chaos and restoring trust in public services," he said.
"This is about restoring politics as public service, ensuring government acts to fix problems not cause them."
Rayner and Reynolds said the government was also calling on the Welsh Government, Scottish Government and England's metro mayors not to use their minimum-service-levels powers.
They said the Home Office was writing to four trade unions representing staff at Border Force to confirm that minimum service levels would no longer be used in border security.
Fran Heathcote, general secretary of PCS – the civil service's biggest union, said the organisation was "very proud" of the role it had played in bringing about the end of minimum service levels.
"When they were introduced, we warned they would effectively criminalise strike action for thousands of our members in the Border Force and the Passport Office, which is why, in January this year, we launched a judicial review to stop them," she said.
"We’re pleased a court battle wasn’t necessary and hope their repeal signals the beginning of a new dawn in labour relations and a significant improvement in workers’ rights. We call on the Labour government now to repeal all other anti-trade union laws."
In May, PCS was granted permission to pursue a High Court challenge to minimum service levels. Its legal team had argued that the Strikes Act infringes Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which safeguards the right to form trade unions and take industrial action.