LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s opposition Labour Party would repeal recently-introduced legislation that limits workers’ rights to strike if it wins an election expected next year, deputy leader Angela Rayner said on Tuesday, pledging to enhance employee protection.
The promise to reverse the Strikes (Minimum Service levels) Act within 100 days of taking power represents a clear pitch to the party’s traditional support base of trade unions and workers as the party begins to flesh out its campaign platform
In July, the Conservative government passed a bill which it says balances the right to strike with the need for the public to have access to services after severe disruption from industrial action over the past year.
The act requires striking workers in key sectors such as the rail, ambulance and fire services to provide minimum levels of service during any industrial action.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said the new legislation was a “spiteful and bitter attack” on trade unions.
“The next Labour Government will ask Parliament to repeal these anti-trade union laws within our first 100 days,” she said in a speech at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) annual conference in Liverpool.
She said that Labour would also bring forward an Employment Rights Bill in its first 100 days in office.
Labour has said that such a bill will legislate for fairer pay, strengthen rights and protections for workers and bolster trade unions’ rights.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by William James)
