The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill was introduced into the UK parliament last week and makes provision for minimum service levels to be stipulated for health services, fire and rescue services, education services, transport services, decommissioning of nuclear installations and management of radioactive waste and spent fuel, and border security, but the detail of the minimum service levels themselves will be outlined in further regulations.

The government has said it is introducing the legislation “to ensure that striking workers don’t put the public’s lives at risk and prevent people getting to work, accessing healthcare, and safely going about their daily lives”.

However, the Trades Union Congress has described the Bill as an “attack” on the right to strike and said the proposals were “undemocratic, unworkable, and almost certainly illegal”.

The right to strike is enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The ECHR is codified in the UK by the Human Rights Act, however, the right to strike is a qualified one.

Article 11 of the ECHR provides for the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of their interests. The article, however, provides that restrictions can be placed on the exercise of those rights where the restrictions are prescribed by law and are “necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public...

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