TORY ‘MINIMUM SERVICE’ LAWS WILL ‘POISON’ INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2023 :: RMTnews 4 RMT has warned that if new planned anti-union minimum service laws were used it would only worsen industrial relations, prolong disputes and lead to even more strikes as well as new novel forms of action. The union was responding to a new Transport Committee report challenging the government’s ‘minimum service level regulations for railway strike action. While the new draconian anti-union legislation became law earlier this year details of those regulations and how they could work in practice have yet to be unveiled by the Department for Transport (DfT). Following its inquiry, the cross-party committee has demanded that if any such legislation was used it must ensure that safety for staff and the travelling public must be the primary consideration and that Industrial disputes must not be neither been prolonged nor increased. Transport Committee Chair Iain Stewart MP said: “We can’t accept an increased risk of lives being put in danger due to a lack of key staff such as signallers, or of those with access needs being neglected if they experience difficulty”. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch told the committee that there would be novel forms of action, and there would be wildcat action, which is what already happens in France, Italy, Spain and elsewhere. “In Sweden there were walk-outs all over the Stockholm tube network outside the minimum service legislation,” he told the committee. Even in its own impact assessment of the legislation, the Department of Transport noted that a consequence of the introduction of minimum service levels could be an “increase in staff taking action short of striking which is not prohibited by this legislation”. The impact assessment also noted that such action was not only “difficult to mitigate” but can require “extensive planning, placing significant strain on the rail industry”, which in turn could lead to a “change in relations” between unions and employers, alongside “more adverse impacts in the long term, such as an increased frequency of strikes for each dispute”. Mick Lynch said that it only revealed further that the profoundly flawed plans were untested proposals dreamt up in Tory think tanks that would inevitably lead to more chaos on the railways and increase safety risks. “Instead of attacking workers right to strike the government should spend its energy on resolving the national rail disputes. “We have reached settlement in Scotland and Wales which demonstrates that the real reason for the current dispute is the union busting agenda of the UK government,” he said. RMT has called upon Transport Secretary Mark Harper to allow rail operators to negotiate an end the national rail dispute. The union issued a fresh call for the Transport Secretary to step up to the plate as it was the government who contractually controlled the companies and sets the parameters of any deal. Following a Freedom of Information request, the union recently unearthed documents showing that the government had stitched up the ticket office closure consultation process and ministers were involved in drawing up the proposals. Other concerns included longer-term staffing levels at stations and the reliability of Union warns that new anti-union laws will prolong disputes and lead to more forms of action TORY ‘MINIMUM SERVICE’ LAWS WILL ‘POISON’ INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS RMT TELLS GOVERNMENT TO STOP INTERFERING Tory government preventing any settlement to national rail dispute with veto on any agreement