Ministers have been warned that teaching unions will not sign up to a “bullies’ charter” that removes teachers’ rights, after the government introduced new legislation on strikes.
The bill, published today, includes the removal of some workers’ protection against unfair dismissal for going on strike if they have been given a notice telling them to work.
While education workers are covered by the legislation, the government has said it does not want to impose minimum standards on the sector and wants to instead reach “voluntary agreements” with unions.
But one union leader has tonight condemned the plan as a “bullies’ charter”, while another is warning that members would never sign up to a voluntary agreement that curtails the right to strike.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was “very clear” that the legislation published today “would remove the protection from unfair dismissal of employees who go on strike if they have been told to work under minimum service levels”.
“It effectively removes the right to strike, flies in the face of long-held civil liberties, and is the act of a government that has lost the argument,” he said.
Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, also expressed concern. He said: “The bill introduced today simply demonstrates that the government does not understand or care about the rights of workers.
“They cannot claim to be on side of working people on the one hand and then deny the right to strike on the other.
“The whole point of workers’ rights is to balance the power between workers and unreasonable employers. Unfortunately, unreasonable employers are as common in public service as anywhere else.
“To threaten to sack workers for taking action to defend themselves is simply a bullies’ charter, designed by a failing government losing the confidence and cooperation of its own employees.”
The bill was trailed last week by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and is aimed at ensuring that vital public services will have to maintain a “basic function” when workers go on strike.
Mr Barton said education secretary Gillian Keegan had told the unions that this is ”permissive legislation which allows secretaries of state to bring forward regulations in their area”.
However, Mr Barton said Ms Keegan had said she does not intend to do this in the short term, preferring instead to proceed by “agreement and guidance”.
He added: “No agreement, however, will be reached if it involves removing the rights of employees, and none of this is helpful in promoting good industrial relations.”
The NAHT and the NEU teaching union are currently balloting members at schools in England over strike action on pay, while the NASUWT teaching union closed its ballot on Monday.
‘Unworkable’
The legislation published today sets out amendments to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
The change means protection against unfair dismissal for going on strike would be removed if an employee was in a sector covered by minimum service levels and had been given a work notice telling them to work through the strike.
Last week, the government said that for education, it expected to continue to reach “voluntary agreements” but would look to consult on minimum safety levels should these voluntary positions not be agreed.
Business secretary Grant Shapps said today: “During the passage of the bill, we intend to consult on an adequate level of coverage looks like in fire, ambulance and in rail services.
“For the other sectors covered in the bill, we hope to reach minimum service agreements that mean that we don’t have to use that power in the bill.”
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of NEU, told Tes that the problem was that “the government haven’t even said what minimum service levels would be in education”.
She also said it was unclear who was going to enforce the minimum service levels.
She said: “This is just a dog’s breakfast. And the government is years away from being able to enforce these minimum service levels in education. And you know, this has been really kicked into the long grass, and we think the legislation will be unworkable.”
Dr Bousted added that Ms Keegan had written to the NEU saying “she wants to negotiate” on minimum service levels.
