Labour ends junior doctor and rail strikes – for now
Last month, health secretary Wes Streeting ended 18 months of junior doctor strikes by offering striking workers a 22% pay increase.
In August, train drivers reached a deal with the UK government to end more than two years of wide-ranging rail strikes. The Department for Transport offered unions a pay rise of 5% for 2022-23, 4.75% for 2023-24 and 4.5% for 2024-25. Drivers’ union ASLEF has yet to agree to the deal but have described it as a “good offer”.
“Under the previous Conservative government, efforts to settle the dispute foundered because ministers insisted on linking any pay rises with changes to working practices,” explains Stephen Williams, a work and employment relations expert at University of Portsmouth. “The pay deal agreed between ASLEF and the Labour government lacks any such conditions.”
Train and health service strikes have crippled the UK for several years. Ending the disputes was a matter of urgency for the new government, Williams added.
“The deal with ASLEF shows is a further indication of the priority the new Labour government has attached to resolving disputes with unions in the public services, in order to avoid the kind of disruptive industrial action that marked the last couple of years under the Conservatives,” he said.
It is likely to be the “last piece in the jigsaw” for securing a strike-free service for some time to come, added the University of Glasgow’s professor Gregor Gall, though a driver shortage will continue to create issues on the rails.
So, how fair are the Tory party’s accusations of capitulation? Not very, Gall said.
“Given that the proposed deal is well below the levels of inflation for the first two years (2022-23, 2023-24) and about the current level for 2024-25, this cannot be called a ‘caving in’,” he said.
“The quid pro quo is that no changes are being made to drivers’ terms and conditions of employment. Both ASLEF and Labour are keen to end the dispute so have been prepared to make compromises on both sides while also attempting to deliver fairness.”
Who else is getting a pay rise – and what will Labour’s Employment Rights Bill mean for unions?
Train drivers and doctors aren’t the only workers in line for a pay rise. In July, Labour accepted independent pay review body recommendations of 5.5% annual pay rises for NHS staff and teachers.
The government is also planning to make it easier for unions to mobilise by repealing the Trade Union Act 2016. This law sets restrictive legal thresholds for how much support strike ballots need, requiring 50% of a trade union’s members to take part in strike votes for the walkout to be allowed. In public services, at least 40% of the union’s total members must have voted for action. Ballots must also be conducted by post, rather than digitally.
This week, business leaders warned that Labour’s plans to lower these thresholds would “stifle economic growth”.
“A lot of us are concerned. We’ve got unions knocking on the door knowing they’ve got new powers coming down the track,” a FTSE executive told The Times.
But such accusations “are completely unfair”, said Umney.
“Unions are bargaining organisations – they want to make deals. They’re often reluctant to strike. It costs them money, they can’t mobilise at the drop of a hat, and it requires a lot of energy and resources,” he said. “It’s insulting to workers and it’s a very limited view of what unions want.”
Indeed, many of the reforms are just common sense, Umney added – like permitting workers to vote via digital ballot.
“Why on earth wouldn’t you let them hold a strike ballot electronically? There’s no reason not to do that unless you want to suppress turnout,” he said.
These changes – due in the forthcoming Employment Rights Bill – are part of what Labour calls its ‘reset’ of industrial relations after 14 years of austerity and anti-unionism.
But this does not mean a return to “untrammelled union power or influence”, said Gall.
“It’s much more like the Blairite years of so-called ‘fairness not favours’ where Labour will work with unions that it regards as ‘responsible’ (i.e., moderate) and shun those that it regards as ‘irresponsible’ (i.e., militant).”
Far from being ‘untrammelled’, unions have comparatively little power in the UK. According to the CBR-LRI Index, the UK actually has a very lightly regulated labour market.
The British regulatory model treats labour laws as a ‘burden on business’, explains Tony Dobbins, professor of work and employment relations at the University of Birmingham. But “this is not the norm” internationally.
“Worker-protective regulations have mostly positive impacts, including for productivity, innovation and employment, and fairer income distribution,” he said.
“This factual evidence goes against much orthodox commentary in the UK on the impact of worker protection regulations, including trade union rights.”
Improving employee relations would increase productivity – but so-called ‘pro-business interests threaten that, Dobbins concludes.
“Lobbying by some business leaders to reconsider/dilute the proposals (including trade union rights) seem to indicate that influential employer representatives do not welcome partnership with unions, preferring to retain the status quo of managerial freedom to manage unencumbered by new collective workers’ rights,” he said.
Businesses leaders have issued an ultimatum, claiming that they won’t be able to invest in the UK if the government gives unions too much bargaining power. Predicating your investment on getting the outcome you want? Sort of sounds like holding the country to ransom.
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