Introduction: Why Minimum Service Laws Matter
When the UK’s Conservative government introduced the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023, it claimed to be bringing the UK in line with “modern European nations.” During strikes in essential services — the Conservative argument goes — shouldn’t the public be guaranteed a basic level of care and safety? However, beneath this common-sense veneer lay a deeper question: how far can a government go in curbing the right to strike without undermining democracy itself?
The Act was apparently short-lived. The Labour government already promised to repeal it through the Employment Rights Act. Yet the debate is far from over. Minimum service levels (MSLs) remain a tempting tool for governments facing industrial unrest to carry out an expansive project to silence opposing voices, in the case of minimum services, to protect the so-called ‘silent majority’. This can be done in various ways, including a careful design to silence workers’ voices while keeping a façade of legality. To understand how such a strategy pans out, in a recent article, I discuss how the latest Conservative government brought back in the UK an authoritarian narrative tested in Pinochet’s dictatorship.
The UK Context: Strikes and the Birth of the MSL Act
The backdrop to the MSL Act was the cost-of-living crisis of 2022–2023, which triggered the largest wave of strikes in decades. Rail workers, postal staff, teachers, civil servants, and NHS employees all walked...
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