 Felly dyma ar gyfer i gael i rannu chyrdeisio'r dystlunio i'r ddysgu sefydlocueth. Maen general yn s mwy ddyn gweld i'r ddechrau, oherwydd, yn ddechrau sy'n gweld i'r ddysgu yn ymgyrch yn y nadd. Dw i ddyn ni wedi atalu i'r ddysgu i ni, a beth yng nghylch yn ei ddysgu, gyda chi'n ddyn nhw'n ddyn nhw'n ddyn nhw, sydd mae'n ddelch yn ei ddysgu ar gyfer, yna'n ei ddysgu, ac mae'n ddyn nhw'n ddyn nhw'n ddyn nhw'n ddyn nhw. Chris Lerder. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. It's a pleasure to speak into this debate. Can I just start off, Mr Deputy Speaker, by declaring that I am not a member of GMB. I am not a member of the UNITE Union and I am not a member of Unison either. I'm sorry to Honourable Members opposite of if I've missed out one or other of them. But, Mr Deputy Speaker, my remarks in this debate this evening are in respect of the erdoedd oedd yn rhywbeth arferfyrddolol yn y cyd-rhywbeth i gynnig i wedyn rhaglenio a'r ddyn nhw'n fyw i wneud eu ddisgliadau yn cyfael. Prygau'r by lipos oえ siaradau hynny. It's an important piece of legislation. Those of us who are and have been sensible and constructive members of trade unions know that we can still take strike action without closing down the whole network or shutting down an entire operation. Ysgol chefisio ar y dylau o bwyngwyr hwnnw, a'r hwnnw i'r ganwyr ac'r gweithio chtwnnw i'r i gweithio caniannau gyda'r gwrthyn, ar y gweithio cysylltu i gyd. A'r gweithio cysylltu i'r gweithio colli. A'r gweithio gweithio cyfrïg pethau yn gweithredu'r busnid. Ond y dŵr iawn, mae'n eu cywir, mae'n ddych yn disgylchedder o'r sefydliad. Mae'n dŵr iawn o'r sefydliad o'r 8-day benthau sydd yn gyfle cych yn hyffordbwynt gyda kall. Mae'n dŵr iawn o'r sefydliad o'r sefydliad o'r bwysig er mwyn nesaf i'r referendum aethraedd ystod o'r 14-day. Mae'r dŵr iawn o'r sefydliad o'r sefydliad o'r sefydliad, o'n ddod a'i wneud cyhoeddi, a'r wrth yn gwneud yng Nghymru ei chylywbeth yn gallu hynny yn digwydd o flynyddiaethedd. Rydyn ni'n dechrau ffordd, Rhyngid, wedi cyhoeddion hwnnw mewn y dalgol, rydyn ni'n dechrau ffordd i ddechrau yn y hwnnw i'r gwneud o'r policon sydd yn gweithio yn y rhai. Ac mae'n cael ei wneud o'r lle o'r hanfodol ry'n gweithio ei wneud yn cyd- rai pedfysigol, Felly yw hy � lát o'r blyneddau og, yr oedd gagwch ar gyfer yng nghymru, yn ymgyrchu sydd wedi'u wybod. Dyna ddim yn gynmar yr osbryd a chyf Bod, mae ymlaen iawn hynny. Mae'r gaelhaf yn y cyfnod y maen nhw. Mae'r gaelhaf yn ei ddiwrnod gan ff�ono o'r gwybgau, a ar gaelhaf yn ei gaelhaf. years. poured the sharkww bots for industrial action, and we know it's the case. We know it's the case, because members of the RMT have been striking against them cells in the last twelve months. In transport committee last week it became clear that the head of a train ond rai ddweud i'r ddechrau'r rhan ei wneud i'r wneud hynny. Rydyn ni'n fawr i'r gweithio o'r gweithio ac o'r lluniau'r lleidiau. Rhyw rhai ddweud i'r lluniau o ddweud o gweithio o ddweud i'r bethau o'r lannu'r pethau. Fel Llyfrgell yn iawn i'r Pethau, rydyn ni wedi'n digwydd, ond rydyn ni'n ddweud i'r lleidiau. Rydyn ni'n gweithio i'r lannu. I thank the hon. Member for Giving Way, and being honest about his trade union membership, I wonder what the hundreds of thousands of teachers who just voted to go on strike against his bombed government think about being called political pawns when they're striking to the government. I should just remind my friend and the hon. Gentleman that I've said my remarks about those in the transport industry, who are in touch with me and who represent them. I should gallw'n dweud o gael eich dŵr i'r ddweud oes. Rydyn ni'n gallu'n gael ei ddweud o'r llawd yma. Mae'n ddod am yna i'r gweithio i ddweud o'r cyfnoddau i'r ddweud o'r cyfnoddau, sy'n credu'r rhagleniol yma i'r ddweud o'r cyfnoddau i'r ddweud o'r cyfnoddau i'r ddweud o'r cyfnoddau. mae uniannau hynny o'r llai gyda hynny o bwysig llai, ychydig yw larn� hwnnw, ond mae uniannau hynny o pwysig llai, caer eu clyw yna gan y cyfaintau sydd ystafell – mae hynny'n unrhyw ogyl BMW Llywodraeth. Mae yw chyfodd yn byw'r molygu hynny o'r ffordd o'r re fallenen o'r pernod o ffynnukr sy'n dechrau llygon ceg ar gyfer hyn. I can assure the honourable lady that there's no influence from trade unions in my members' interests. But the irony is, Mr Deputy Speaker, that we know members of the shadow front bench have accepted the TUC's invitation to go to Spain to talk about all these things with Spanish unions and to come back to work out how disruption can be caused in this country. There is so much, Mr Deputy Speaker, to be exposed and I'm afraid I haven't got any more time to do it as I'd be happy to do some more. I'm John Sonny. A week for the use of draconian democratic powers from this government, the restrictive anti-trade union legislation they pushed through in 2016 clearly wasn't enough for them. So now we see an unprecedented attack that would undermine the most basic of workers' rights, the right to withdraw labour. The right to strike is essential for fairness in negotiations with employers and to protect workers from having appalling pay and conditions opposed upon them. It's what differentiates modern Europe from the medieval serfdoms of the past. Turning their backs on fundamental tenants of democracy really is something that this government is getting far too used to doing. The more they get a taste for it, the further they want to go. We saw them illegally pro-roll Parliament and pushed through in Brexit. Now we see plans for a bonfire of thousands of EU regulations that protect our rights. We saw the attack on devolution through the Internal Markets Act and now we see them block a democratic decision rightly taken in Holyrood, cranking up disrespect to yet another notch. We see their anti-protest laws becoming even more authoritarian with plans for the police to arrest campaigners before they even have a chance to commit a crime. Now we have their anti-trade union agenda being taken to the next level with these blunt powers being brought forward to stop strikes. The sweeping Henry Day powers in this bill enabling ministers to amend, repeal or revoke primary legislation not yet passed should chill the heart of any Democrat. It is ironic that for a government so keen to turn its back on Europe that they do lean so heavily on its excuse but that's what other countries do. It's also deeply disingenuous and as Unison rightly pointed out other countries being cherry-picked by the government like Hitler, France come to voluntary agreements through collaborative processes and far less restrictive measures in place than we're currently seeing in the UK. They do not have unspecified minimum service levels imposed on them by an executive as this bill would enable this government to do. Strikes are not the cause of the problems we face here. A symptom of a deep-rooted damage that has been done to our public service by this government the fact that nobody downs tools without a very good cause, especially during a cost of living crisis. Whatever motivation workers might have, they're under attack on all fronts from this government and I commend the unions for taking action to protect their members. If the government continues to be determined to go down this destructive path further damaging industrial relations, they must devolve employment law now so that the Scottish government, as the powers it needs to protect rights of the people of Scotland from the damage of this government, workers are not just striking for themselves they're striking for the very future of public services which they witness being run into the ground they're protecting the cohesion of our communities, the standards of living we should all be able to enjoy and the rights of all workers. I stand in solidarity with them and I will always fight to protect the right to strike from irresponsible attacks such as this. This bill should be refused any further consideration and I urge every member here tonight to stand against it and vote it down. Mr Dirkley speaking, can I first start by welcoming you to your place. Secondly, can I thank, please welcome my thanks to all public sector workers for the excellent work they have done not just during the pandemic but for many many years prior to that. As we all know, the country is facing a difficult economic hardship. Yes partly because of the war in Ukraine, yes partly because of our active response in the fight against the pandemic. But I wanted to say that actually we need to be conscious that we are here to support workers and not all workers are part of unions. It's fair and reasonable and I will always come back to the theme of fair and reasonable to suggest that actually some of this legislation and I wouldn't be supporting this piece of legislation some of this legislation is making sure there's a correct balance between those in the unions that wish to strike but also the majority of mine electorate who continue to either run small companies or work in smaller industries that rely on public services like the railway network as many of you have known and have said in this place before. While I represent quite a lovely constituency we are very much north and south on public transport and when there are rail strikes it is with extreme difficulty that my constituents can get around. While that may not necessarily hurt those that have the ability to act as a car or an extremist pay for a local cab, for those actually that we should be supporting the most they are the ones that are most affected by this, the ones that aren't able to use the bus to send their kids off to school or get to their GP surgery or doctor's appointment. I know that there was reference mainly to the eastern region ambulance service where they had a really tough time over many many years. Can I just place on my book called My Thanks that they were not one of those bodies that had a strike over the recent weeks. I know that unfortunately I've had to use their services over the last few weeks and months and they are literally saving lives doing the excellent work they do in very difficult circumstances. One of the things that I wanted to make public aware of though is that post pandemic we have adapted the way we work and while yes we are very much supportive of things like well workers the general population will adapt. I'm a firm believer that people should be encouraging people to get back to work whether that's communities in London or a lot of my constituents but if it does prove too difficult they will just turn around and say actually we've already adapted post pandemic to working from home but what that will mean is that actually we will hollow out the urban areas of our country like central London where instead of a vibrant high street like we had in Victoria street you'll very quickly have high street retailers closing up shop like the Pwetomonges of the world because they don't have the footfall to support. I know that references have been made to international classes and I for one and I think we've got the balance right with our support for workers but also counter that for wealth creators. Someone comes from an SME background I knew that I was fully reliant on one or two or three workers in my case a furniture retail shop to make sure that the business could run and I couldn't do that without them but they weren't part of the union but 80% of our economy is reliant on SMEs and while the unions are excellent in the work they do for large public sector bodies there are other workers out there that aren't members of the union. Can I just finally mention the fact that my great friend and gunner friend Member Palmer for Baton mentioned which is about our armed forces and the police have not been able to strike for over 100 years now. That system has worked so I'm not necessarily worried about this particular legislation. Thank you. Sir Owen. Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. I refer the House to my register of interest and declare that I am proudly a trade union member as no surprise to anybody. I'll save the Secretary of State who's no longer in his place at the time and say that the donation three years ago is actually my final month's salary from GMB and I'd rather clean donations from trade unions any given day over anything that that party opposite receives in non-doms. The attacks on the rights and freedoms of our constituents are only becoming more apparent. Lutonians have written to me concerned about the plans to restrict their right to strike not just for themselves but for the services that they rely on. We are all desperate for our public services to be stronger, faster, more effective and cost efficient but it is not the fault of the selfless and hardworking key workers in our health, rail and teaching sectors that public services are in the skeletal state that they are or that nurses are having to use food banks. It is the fault of 13 years of Tory government. Now, like many others in this chamber, the prosperity of public services and their workforce is personal to me. I was a care worker, I worked in the fire brigade and I was a HCA doing shifts on hospitals. I've also been a trade union member for nearly 20 years and have been a trade union officer working on pro-manufacturing campaigns bereavement leave for foster carers, stopping the abuse of agency workers, training airport staff and ensuring survivors of domestic abuse are safe at work. I say this, not because it's particularly extraordinary but because this is all in the days work for trade unionists and those opposite should bear that in mind while they denigrate the work of trade unions. But this is not just political, it is also personal. My partner works in education, my father was a firefighter and my mother was a nurse. They took great pride in their work and so they should. When we face crisis personally or nationally it is these workers we rely on to keep us safe, heal us, protect our homes and our loved ones. Why then is this government determined to punish those workers with real-term pay cuts, job losses, worse terms and uncertain futures yet still reward bankers with unlimited bonuses? Not only are British public service workers seeing their pay declining or their jobs cuts they're now told they cannot speak up about it. The message to public sector heroes from this bill is put up and shut up. Unfortunately for this government that is not the spirit of this country or the party of these benches. Our constituents know the value of their work, they know the dignity they deserve and when it comes to civil liberties the party opposite talk a good game about freedom of speech but when it comes to the basic rights to strike and to protest this one of the most extreme Tory governments is on the wrong side every time. They fight for the rights of Holocaust deniers, climate change skeptics and out and out misogynists to say whatever they like online in an effort to pier anti-woke and pro-freedom of speech yet when it's the freedoms of nurses, teachers, doctors, paramedics, firefighters, support staff, healthcare assistants the Conservatives are not on their side they don't want them to have the same freedoms as everyone else. Ordinary working people like the ones ministers are trying to gag now fought for our rights, rights from maternity leave, bank holidays to be safe at work, equal pay and to remove their labour to have their voices heard when those in power aren't listening and so the Tories soak time and time again that they're on the wrong side and all they have to do is listen and negotiate they are the reason people need strong trade unions and the Labour government because the Tories will never be on the side of working people I will always be on the side of working people and I will vote against this bill today Rose Edwards Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker this is a debate about the balance of rights balancing the right to strike of our constituents who work in essential public services with the rights of our other constituents their right to get to work, to school, to have their operation and even in the case of blue light services their right to life because that is what we are talking about here this bill isn't about views on the rights and wrongs of the current strikes it is certainly not an attack on public sector workers the suggestions otherwise from the party opposite are both disgusting and an attempt to stifle genuine debate now I deeply value the work of nurses, teachers, firefighters, ambulance drivers and rail staff across Rushcliffe and across the country and of course they should have the right to withdraw their labour this bill is about how they can do so safely now the Labour party would have us believe this is some outrageous attack on workers' rights political violence said the honourable member for Jarrow one that no civilised country could possibly contemplate no civilised country other than Spain, Italy, Germany, France or indeed the United States, Australia and Canada who in some areas have an outright ban on strikes and blue light services normally Mr Deputy Speaker the party's opposite idolise Europe's approach to employment rights but on this particular issue of minimum services they are keeping very quiet why Madam Deputy Speaker or Mr Deputy Speaker I apologise why? because their paymasters in the union don't want to let them do otherwise and I understand I do oh I would happily give way to the opportunity I thank you for giving way most of the members on this side of the house we are proud of the fact that trade union members their local branch meetings vote democratically to make donations to local Labour parties so I would ask if you would enjoy the postures, outrageous and true comments I certainly won't Mr Deputy Speaker because the honourable gentleman failed to declare in that intervention he has received £13,000 from the unions and I noticed there are lots of proud union members who aren't declaring their donations which is not me being party political this is the retirement of this house position, it's not easy to turn around to the union barons who've given you and your colleagues over £1 million in the last four years and tell them they are wrong this bill builds on the principles in the trade union act of 2016 which put higher vote thresholds on important public services when unions ballot on strike action it builds on the principle of life and limb cover but will prevent the situation we had at the end of last year where different ambulance services had different agreements in place with unions this resulted in a postcode lottery for patients which is unacceptable the bill complies with the criteria set out by the international labour organisation as my honourable friend for newbies set out in detail in short this bill sets out a pathway for workers to exercise their rights safely it shouldn't be controversial it has precedent in the UK all over Europe and in international conventions we are making the responsible choice to protect all of our constituents but over on the other side of the house well it may be a new year but it's the same old labour still acting as the mouthpiece of their paymasters the union barons bought by the barons and still doing that Clive Lewis As I may have told you I didn't hear you sorry Ms Deputy Speaker thank you very much and I refer the house to my register of interest where you'll find no money from oligarchs from Saudi Arabia from oil barons, oil companies nothing but from trade unions so Ms Deputy Speaker here we are a little more than 18 months since the end of lockdown and this government has gone from clapping to slapping key workers and it didn't have to be this way in the wake of Covid this government had a choice it could have liked the 1945 Labour Government at the end of world war 2 chosen a new path, a different path a new social settlement that recognised a sacrifice of key workers it could have rewarded them by embarking upon collective sexual bargaining invested in rebuilding our public services in housing after more than a decade of decay it could have built a new social settlement recognising the role those workers played in that national crisis instead it chose to look instead to the first world war and get his axe when the post-war conservative government was spending attacked workers' rights and told the poor that they are not the wealthy, must bear the brunt of the costs of the war Ms Deputy Speaker legislation puts beyond a shadow of doubt whose side this government is on it's certainly not the public no it's not the public because these public sector workers being denied their democratic rights are the public they're the ones defending public services not this government they're the ones fighting to stop trains without city officers they're the ones fighting to stop railways to reduce numbers of safety precautions the ones fighting to stop a healthcare system run from Silicon Valley by surveillance companies they're the ones fighting for our education system where 44% of teachers plan to leave within five years no this government is on the side of employers like P&O, British Gas British Airways with a bill that gives a green light to the practitioners of fire and rehire of poverty pay and a race to the bottom and yes, as ever, it's on the side of the rich and wealthy like it's always been but this legislation is also part of a longer term anti-democratic trend this bill is part of a long run of anti-democratic legislation passed by this government is a trend of transferring power away from workers and citizens and eliminating the limited rights and freedoms in the workplace and across society the Pleas and Crime Sentencing Act of 2022 criminalised political protest the Elections Act of 2022 will disenfranchise millions through voter ID you undermine the independence they've undermined the independence of the electoral commission the judicial review and courts act limits the power of courts to remedy unlawful government action on the part of the executive the National Borders Act 6 million people in this country can now be stripped of their citizenship at the whim of the Home Secretary and while they have temporarily gone quiet we know they want to appeal the Human Rights Act as well so Mr Deputy Speaker the British public have had enough of being told by this government to suck up failing privatised public services corrupt politicians failing democracy being told there is no alternative that politicians will always be caught on the take that the rich and powerful will always be able to buy influence that food banks are inevitable that the NHS will always be in crisis that our rivers will always be polluted that a race to the bottom on employment rights is inevitable history will show this bill as the act of the government on the ropes, bereftive direction lashing out in the very public it claims to protect the 50-year-old ideological experiment and it's in tatters all around it I'll be voting against this piece of advice Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker and can I welcome you to your place and it's a pleasure to follow the honourable gentleman from Norwich South I was struck by something you just said there yes the rich and powerful can always buy influence you just need to see the number of people who have made declarations this evening this is a simple and effective bill aimed at ensuring that the right to collective bargaining and withdrawal of labour does not conflict with the right of the average British system services whilst unions and government negotiate the debilitating strikes the past six months have wreaked havoc on this country dragging us into a virtual state of second lockdown preventing workers from travelling to offices shoppers from accessing high streets and putting additional pressure on the NHS and we understand that this is driven in part by the inflationary pressures we're encountering as a nation no one and I mean no one Mr Deputy Speaker is disputing the right of workers to withdraw their labour as a part of negotiation however unreasonable some of those demands end up being no one is saying that at all all we're asking for is some proportionality and responsibility in the way this is done our nation should not be held hostage and lighter is simply for wanted minimum safety standards and that's what we're talking about this evening now we'll talk about blanket enforcement just to recognise the definition that some centres are quite simply vital health, fire and rescue education few of us will forget the impact of shutting down schools during the pandemic transport since the mayor of London can't stick to a zero day strike pledge decommissioning of nuclear installations and management of radioactive waste I mean surely that one's a no brainer we can all agree that needs to go on and of course border security this bill ensures that people can access an ambulance when they call for one count on fire responders in an emergency send their children to school travel to work why should they be held to ransom by militant unelected trade union officials if they want that kind of power they should stand for election not simply buy in support from the party opposite minimum service levels are not an anomaly France, Spain and Italy have given minimum service levels during strikes I thought the party office was in favour of more European alignment Government does not want to use this bill but it's vital to have in place a system that the British public can access services during strike days and go about their life in an ordinary way so we have to ask ourselves what are these strikes really about I'll highlight rail because I'm regularly commuting myself union bosses refuse to accept that the pandemic has fundamentally changed how travel use the rail network modernising the network is essential to make sure that it's sustainable for future generations the government stepped in with support to the railway industry of over 30 billion during the pandemic that's not pocket change I've seen the impact first hand of what rail strikes have done to the west coast mainline at one point facing up to a 10 hour coach journey because of the lack of flexibility now that's fine for me because I can afford to be flexible with my working arrangements but I can't go a good guaranteed wage plenty of my constituents don't and the fact service isn't there when they need it they're in serious trouble the hypocrisy of trade unions saying that their fighting for workers is palpable travel is unavoidable to millions of workers who do not have the option of working remotely these people are driving Britain's economy despite the obstacles put in front of them by trade unions so let's look at the collateral effects to send us rail strikes across UK hospitality £1.5 billion the simple fact to the matter is with over £15 million donated to the labour party from trade unions it's no wonder why then it sits on their hands while trade unions cripple our vital services even the leader of the opposition noted that's why he's not here leading this debate today instead he's rubbing shoulders with bankers in Davos these strikes have become contagious spreading from one sector to another holding the British public hostage in the hope that the government will surrender and that's not how a democracy works I support workers rights I welcome this commitment to the right of the British public to access vital services during strike action and I look forward to support to get later tonight Ian Byrn Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker and it's an honour to follow the Member the Hail with the Middleton for that extremely interesting speech and I'd like to put on the record I'm a proud member of United Union and the GMB I will be voting against this bill today and stand in absolute solidarity with all those in Liverpool and West Abbey taking industrial action in defence of their pay conditions, their colleagues and in defence of the public who rely on these services and proud to stand alongside them on picket lines and will continue to support workers and struggle with pride and may I offer with advice to the members opposite go to the picket lines speak to the people on them and then maybe the demonisation will not slip so easily from them lips This is a penises bill which changed this house and nation designed to attack and demolarise public service workers taking industrial action as a very last resort I've spoken to natives, firefighters civil servants and posties in Liverpool at our food panties who are being forced into food poverty because of the wages they've received after 12 years of austerity a political choice made by the Tory government in 2010 and now we are living to the wreckage of that choice with the destruction of our NHS and public services Let's be clear the reason these workers that have not taken industrial action in the first place is because of this government and these decisions because never ever forget hunger and poverty Many public sector workers who are facing this moment is a political choice but this Prime Minister unfortunately finds so easy to make Mr Deputy Speaker we have a multimillionaire Prime Minister who will never ever know what it's like to feel hungry who will never fear the creeper poverty at the door of his home telling public sector workers facing this dire situation that will be sad that they redraw their labour when they simply say enough is enough Mr Deputy Speaker We have a morally bankrupt government with financial scandal after financial scandal second job after second job bringing to colonial legislation to outlaw industrial action for the very people we clapped during Covid for everything they done for us as a nation The bill itself is a purposefully lacking in detail practically unworkable and potentially unlawful attempt to fight a strike Instead of bringing this bill to Parliament the Minister should have been spending time negotiating with the meaningfully with the trade unions about pay and conditions and they could have also used this time to write a long promised employment bill Mr Deputy Speaker this bill must be voted down the crony in drift is now becoming a raging current and the parliamentarian believes in the democratic right of its citizens must see this clearly and kick this get your piece of legislation out of this place Angela Richards Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker Industrial action has impacted upon many aspects of people's lives in Guildford over the past few months I regret the decisions made by multiple trade unions to strike leaving no train services for commuters and key workers in my constituency Christmas cards to loved ones arriving in January and delays at the UK border for those returning from breaks with family and friends and now we hear this evening that our children's education is to be disrupted again this is deeply saddening news I welcome the minimum service level legislation that the government has put forward which delivers on our manifesto commitments protects the rights of workers to withdraw their labour whilst also ensuring that the general public can go about their daily business safely this pragmatic legislation will bring the UK into line with other industrialised nations such as France and Spain who already have common sense agreements in place such as those proposed today in this bill during periods of industrial action on the railways constituents in Guildford and those travelling to town for work have found themselves cut off from the railway network with no services being run by southwestern railway on these days either forcing them to work from home to find alternative transport such as using their cars or simply not to work at all it is often those who earn the least who cannot work from home over the Christmas period the overtime ban which was enforced also reduced the levels of service which were provided to Guildford station I know from conversations on the doorsteps and in my inbox that local people are rightly concerned about the level of public transport provision that they are currently receiving a recent YouGov poll placed the level of support for this legislation among the wider public at 59% and I know that this feeling is also reflected locally in Guildford the deputy leader of the opposition in her opening speech said that Labour would repeal this legislation they are showing themselves yet again to be out of touch with my constituents and out of touch with the country Rail partners the organisation who represents the owners of train operators including first group who own the majority share in southwestern railway has said that this approach and I quote seeks to appropriately balance and protect the right to strike and the rights of others to get to work and access necessary healthcare I agree with their assessment of this legislation the safety of the general public must always remain the primary responsibility of any government and I welcome the measures proposed in this bill to do just that and I will be supporting this legislation today Joanna Cherry I will not be supporting this legislation for three reasons the first is that the bill is not really about safety levels at all the second is that claims that this bill reflects current practice elsewhere in Europe are inaccurate and the third is the very real risk that these proposals are in reach of the United Kingdom's obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights and International Labour Law as other honourable members have said the word safety doesn't even appear in the bill it's a bill about minimum service levels not minimum safety levels yet repeatedly conservative politicians have talked about minimum safety levels and seem very happy for confusion between the two concepts to be cause and I suspect that's because this is a deliberate attempt to hide from the public the real intentions behind the bill. Secondly as to European standards most European countries as others have said have a very different model of labour relations from the United Kingdom which thanks to successive Tory governments has one of the strictest systems of regulations of industrial relations in Europe. In other countries trade union rights are protected in their written constitution and Labour law experts will tell you that in most European countries minimum service levels are established by collective bargaining and in so far as legislation exists it provides a framework for these agreements rather than for top-down regulation this bill would enable the Secretary of State to impose sweeping regulations from the top on millions of workers in a number of different sectors as I said when I interviewed on the Secretary of State at the start of the debate the measures in this bill go considerably further than the minimum service levels envisaged by the transport strike minimum service levels bill published last October and the government's own human rights memorandum which accompanied the previous bill set out in some detail with reference to existing legislation the reason why their lawyers then said minimum service levels imposed by legislation were not justified in fire services, health settings and education yet that's what they're now proposing and their human rights memorandum for this bill is very different and I can absolutely guarantee honourable members across the house that as chair of the joint committee on human rights I'll be making sure we scrutinise very carefully the difference between the two human rights memorandums in compliance with international labour law the international labour organisation have enshrined the right to strike in their convention to which the UK is a signatory and it's true that minimum service levels are allowed but not if they're imposed from the top down they need to be set by negotiation or if the negotiation breaks down by an independent body as happens in Italy only in European countries well known for fundamental rights like Hungary and Russia do we see government enforced minimum service levels leading to the sacking of workers and the bankrupting of unions fighting for fair pay and conditions yet that's exactly what the Tories want to do in this bill so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that despite all their anti Putin rhetoric they want to emulate Putin's approach to striking workers perhaps not so surprising because the Deputy Prime Minister has told us he's not ruling out leaving the convention on human rights and the Home Secretary's keen it should happen as soon as possible so given that they're keen to be on the same side as Russia in relation to human rights it's perhaps not surprising that they're doing it in this bill the bottom line Mr Deputy Speaker is that key workers are striking because their wages haven't begun to keep in line with inflation and because the interest rate hikes of Tory incompetence means they can't afford their rent or their mortgage the government needs to recognise the starked reality of these people's lives and work with their unions respectfully to reach agreement Mr Deputy Speaker this bill is about duty, fairness and balance nothing more and nothing less the first duty of any department is to keep its people safe and this bill is about ensuring we have minimum levels of safety and service across our essential public services and I've heard what the Honourable Lady opposite has said about safety but when we're talking about ambulances and when we're talking about accidents and emergency departments it is about safety but it's also about fairness due to the hard work of all the ambulance workers across Essex and all the NHS workers at Southend hospital every doctor, every porter, every care assistant nobody in the wonderful city of Southend and Leonsea has suffered any disruption in the service they've been served with the same dedication and care every single day since these strikes began why should those who are not lucky enough to live in Southend and Leonsea not get the same service of course they should because they are all paid no I won't because of the time so this is about balancing it is about balancing the right to strike with the right to a minimum level of service for those who are paying for it and of course the right to strike is something which on this side of the house we consider to be important it is a key part of our labour no I won't because of the time it's a key part of our labour laws since 1906 and indeed if I can introduce just a moment of levity into this debate you could say that collective action actually started in 1381 with the peasants' revolt which also started in Essex however however it is undeniable it is undeniable that strikes are incredibly disruptive in October of last year we lost 417,000 working days due to strike action 2022 is set to have the highest number of days lost in strike action since 1919 whether it's our trains, our ambulances our hospitals or our post service these strikes disproportionately affect the poorer people in my constituency in south end 2 million people journeys were made from two stations in my constituency these are people who can't work from home who can't afford taxes to get to and from work who aren't allowed the indulgence of hotels which let's face it those of us working in this place are able to claim and it affects children people who travel to our brilliant grammar schools in south end travel generally on the train from different parts of Essex our children's education has suffered enough due to Covid there must be minimum levels to make sure that our children get the education they deserve when they are in school and finally on this point of fairness and equality by ensuring that we have minimum safety levels of work services we are ensuring that a service which is funded by taxpayers equally serves every taxpayer equally how could anybody object to that this shouldn't be a controversial opinion police officers and members of the armed forces already are prevented from taking strike action too often we have to rely on the armed forces to not take strike action because there is an essential service when life and limb are employed and yet we rely on them Order Barry Gardner I refer to my entry in the register of members' interests as a proud union member this bill is an affront to Parliament it will not protect the public it will worsen industrial relations and it will undermine the unity of the United Kingdom it should be voted down tonight there has been much heated argument about the provisions of the bill on all the moral and pragmatic arguments I stand firmly on the side of working people their right to withdraw their labour and against what governments seek to do in this bill but I don't consider that these moral and pragmatic arguments are likely to change the minds or more importantly the votes of Conservative members also so I want to put forward an argument against this bill that I believe they both can and should accept it is damaging to our constitution and to the union the reason the current bill is so short is because it delegates to the Secretary of State the power to set out all the relevant law in regulation through statutory instrument regulations which receive only the most minimal scrutiny in this place and cannot be amended so it's the Secretary of State not Parliament who will make regulations to determine the levels of service in relation to strikes who gets to define the nature of the services to be provided the number of people who are to provide them the time at which there to be provided and the manner in which there to be provided during the strike Extraordinarily this bill also proposes that the Secretary of State should have the power by regulation to amend, repeal or revoke provisions made by or under primary legislation made in this House so statutes passed by Parliament can be amended by regulations drafted by the Minister without full parliamentary scrutiny and in its recent report in the House of Lords democracy denied their lordship stated a substantial groundswell of concern is developing about the shift in power from Parliament to ministers the bill we are considering today is perhaps the most egregious example that an increasingly autocratic executive yet has yet brought forward to strict Parliament of its role in determining what for many others is a critical area of employment and human rights it gets worse the primary legislation which the Secretary of State can amend or repeal is defined so as to include an act of the Senate or the Scottish Parliament this should set alarm bells ringing for all of us nationalists and unionists alike what is being proposed is that the Secretary of State in Westminster should have the power by regulation to override devolved legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament and the Senate and to do so with minimal scrutiny in this House it is intended to provoke constitutional outrage and call into question the very basis of the devolutionary settlements it could not have designed a piece of legislation better guaranteed to do so that the Secretary of State in Whitehall should claim the power to legislate my regulation to interfere in devolved areas of government to impose restrictions in the different parts of this union on the right to strike in the transport education health and other public services in Scotland and Wales is more than unwarranted it is more than inappropriate it is a deliberate provocation and defence Why the Government has refused even the superaffirmative procedure as well I am grateful to my noble friend quite simply because it is introducing a political a party political measure that is designed to provoke this House I call, I ask all Conservative members that they care about the union at all to vote against this wrecking ball of a bill that will only provide succor to those voices that seek to destroy our constitutional settlement and our United Kingdom Under this bill the employer has the unilateral right to identify in a work notice the individual workers required to operate the NSL a worker who refuses to comply after being repositioned in this way under the trade union labour relations consolidation act of 1992 no court can compel an employee to do any work or attend any place for the doing of any work but having notified the union of the identity of the work of the requisition the bill then requires the union to take reasonable steps to ensure that all members of the union identify them the work plan identified in the workplace comply with it it is ironic that under this bill the same trade union may be required to discipline or expand I'm sorry I have not been given notice but we're going down to three minutes in order to get as many people in as we possibly can Dr Caroline Johnson Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker I should first declare that I'm a member of the British Medical Association Mr Deputy Speaker I'm a NHS consultant pediatrician and a member of the health and social care committee this legislation and its impact on the health in particular is of great interest to me during my career I have and indeed I continue to work with many fabulous NHS staff however there's many in this house of rightly pointed out with pay rise being demanded by the World College of Nursing over 19% is just simply unaffordable it is also the case that pay rise is being demanded will continue to drive up inflation at a time when the government is working night and day to keep it down it's also the case that because of the way NHS staff are paid you can't give one group a pay rise without giving it to others in the same pay band and though different unions give the impression that they're negotiating separately for ambulance staff, for nursing staff middle and junior managers in reality they're all on the same banning scheme and a raise for one is a raise for all with each 1% in rise costing £700 million £700 million it's clear that the opposition seem to have misrepresented the government's policy in attempt to take away the right to strike when that's so clearly not the purpose of this legislation when it comes to the NHS it is not right that those in desperate need of medical care cannot get an ambulance or receive care because of strike action these are measures designed to protect people's lives and ensure that people who are with imminent threat to their lives or limb have quick access to care and treatment how could anybody not want such care to be received indeed that is why minimum service levels are individually negotiated by the various ambulance services but that leaves the inconsistency across the country having a pre-agree national minimum level will help to improve patient safety another reason we need to have minimum service levels is that striking service legislation doesn't require people to see whether they're striking or not which means that you've had a situation recently when those organising ward rotors don't know who's turning up to work or not and that makes it very difficult to plan even minimum services for those shifts it's all very good when you're doing a parcel delivery when you need a certain number of people to care for acutistic people is vital you can plan and a minimum service level allows you to do that furthermore the opposition is suggesting that the government want to sack people for striking but this again is a gross distortion striking is a collective decision that's why it's voted upon the government's measures applied to those who having agreed to be part of a minimum service level then did not turn up to work that would under any circumstances be a dereliction of duty and in practice we all know it's not going to happen because NHS staff simply would never do that it's been clear for some time that members of the opposition are not brave enough either to say how much they would offer the unions nor to criticise the strike even when they so clearly could threaten the lives of the constituents there's perhaps no coincidence that the unions behind the recent ambulance strikes are some of the Labour Party's biggest donors in the meantime the government the background colleagues and I will continue to serve our concern tree and our constituents the first to be a champion thank you Mr Speaker I rise as a proud Trout Unionist I've been a member of a trade union all of my life and so I completely fail to understand the division that members opposite are trying to make between union members and workers and the general public aren't buying it either our nurses, teachers, doctors, paramedics rail workers and firefighters have all worked consistently hard over the past decade particularly since Covid yet they are facing real cuts in their pay and drastically worse working conditions NHS nurses are earning £5,000 a year less in real terms than they were in 2010 and for midwives and paramedics this drop goes to over £6,000 we need to retain workers in these professions but instead they're being driven away by the Tories running our public services into the ground instead of trying to resolve the issue at the heart of these strikes this government is undermining workers basic rights to strike and trying to turn the public against them it's not working I'm deeply concerned by the sweeping powers in this bill which will allow the government to dictate what the minimum level of service in a given industry should be with only a meaningless requirement for the Secretary of State to consult whoever they consider appropriate it's disgraceful that employers will have the ability to pick and choose which individuals will be compelled to work and forced across a picket line or they could be sacked this is not a balanced or fair approach nor will it resolve any of the core issues workers are trying to raise through these strikes there are already more restrictions on strikes than ever before and these are being followed to the letter so the strikes which are going ahead have already met the legal requirements Steve writes the head of GMB's ambulance union committee recently wrote to the prime minister calling out his dangerous claims that ambulance workers are putting lives at risk surely the prime minister knows unions have been working with NHS trust to guarantee emergency cover during the strike and if he doesn't know that that's really quite damning in reality on the 21st of December when GMB ambulance workers undertook industrial action the proportions of patients delayed over an hour actually dropped significantly so where is the evidence that striking essential workers are already not providing the minimum level of service it's not there I understand any fears the public may have about not being able to access emergency healthcare when they need it but the government should be honest to constituents rather than demonising hardworking staff who want to be able to provide the best service possible better yet the government should meet with these workers to negotiate and understand their concerns instead of dismissing them it's not striking workers causing the crisis in the NHS it's a decade of Tory mismanagement Mr Fletcher I believe in the right to strike I don't think they work I don't believe in them and I saw the picket lines as a young man the oil drums mainly men stood round trying to keep warm trying for an extra 4 or 5% on their wages with the unions backing them and often they won often they got that extra bit of pay rise that they wanted but move forward 5 years move forward 10 years and what did you have you had closure thousands and thousands of redundancies unclosure this is what happens when people go on strike now unlike unlike the customers of those industries that strike the customers were not paying while those services were being taken away but my constituents don't have a choice they keep on having to pay and when they pay they expect a service they pay whether they get the service or not and this bill in this place is here because I believe the unions like they did in the 70s and 80s are taking advantage they are taking advantage of the place this country finds itself in through no fault of its own at the moment I have employed many people of my life there has been times when we've had tools work and there's times when we've had tool little work but neither my staff nor I have ever abused the upper hand the unions I believe are abusing this position that the country finds itself in and they are trying to hold this country to ransom and the opposition are backing them because of their donors we are legislators and we should only legislate when there is an issue which requires our intervention this appears to be one of those moments I understand that the government will be seeking talks with unions and employers to see where the level of minimum service sits and therefore I hope these talks I entered into with the spirit and that a voluntary arrangement can be made then they should and if a voluntary arrangement can be made then it should be and we can all move on quickly and get our country back on its feet I once again just want to I once again just want to thank all the nurses at Doncaster Royal Infirmary who voted against striking because they know their best efforts are made whilst they are at work not whilst they are on picket lines I am not funded by unions or Russia so before we even get into this bill it's important to highlight that the laws on trade unions within the UK are already amongst the most restrictive in Europe now ministers claim that such bills are common in France and Spain and Germany but they leave out the fact that this bill is much harsher than any of the examples that they cite UK workers will lose their automatic protection from unfair dismissal for example now ministers claim that this bill is about ensuring a minimum level of service and making sure that it's there for the public and their health and safety when they will find well that life and limb agreements are already in place the truth is that this bill is designed to undermine and attack both workers' rights and democracy it carves out yet another war by which Westminster can further erode and undermine the Scottish Parliament now this bill is so bad that it might fall full of European Convention on Human Rights which protects the right of workers to assemble as they wish the very same convention on human rights that the Tories want to take us out from I wonder why I previously spoke very briefly isn't it the case that this is a pattern of behaviour when this government couldn't reach the child poverty targets it scrapped them so what it's doing is changing the goalpost and bringing in hostile hostile environment and hostile legislation to attack workers' rights and human rights absolutely and that leads me neatly on to my next point now I previously spoke about the dangers of sleepwalking into fascism if we're not careful and I didn't say it lightly then and I don't say it lightly now but history is undeniable the slide into authoritarian and anti-democratic politics has always been underpinned with anti-trade union rhetoric over the years we have listened to countless right-wing politicians and governments claim that Brexit would in no way affect workers' rights and yet here we are the reason why trade unions organise industrial action is because it works it has always been the only language that those who hold power understand the only reason that any worker has any right whatsoever is because of trade unions it's because of the ability of workers to organise collectively in defence of their jobs and their livelihoods now people who about the disruption of strike action causes are missing the point entirely these if your day is disrupted by someone not turning up to their job then it just goes to show how crucial that person's job is and why their pay and their conditions should reflect that and another myth that I've heard is people do not undertake strike action lightly strikers lose money strike action indicates a crisis now our nurses our doctors, our teachers, our cleaners supermarket workers these are the very people who kept the world turning through a global pandemic a cost of living crisis and 13 years of Tory austerity and yet this government chooses to ignore and demoralise them at every turn this government would rather blame striking workers than acknowledge the fact that the root causes of strike action lay directly at their door we have the lowest pensions and sick pay in Europe we still do not have a living wage and we are living in economic chaos with inequality getting worse the only ones who are putting the health and safety of the public at risk is this government a government run for twitter a government of clucks and culture with no serious answers ultimately trade unions work and that's exactly why the Tories are coming after them Clive Efford Mr Speaker I'm with Drew because I wasn't here for the outcase, Christine Jardine will be delighted to hear that not at all Mr Deputy Speaker thank you very much I rise actually tonight to speak in opposition to this bill I'm not currently a member of a trade union I have never been a trade union official I do not get any money from the trade union I even last week found myself much to my own surprise in agreement with the Secretary of State when he said to this house that when we need an ambulance we need to know when will turn up well I agreed with that but I did not agree with the context in which he meant it we should be able to rely on that all the time not simply when there's a strike on and I would even have agreed with him and I could even have found myself thinking about supporting this bill if as part of it I felt it was an attempt to address the problem but it's not about problem solving it's political posturing it's an empty detail like vague promise of a mandatory minimum level to replace existing voluntary arrangements which will simply ramp up the rhetoric without saying how anything will be achieved or offering any progress towards the solution that the public in this country need None of us, not in this place not at home watching television not working on the railways or in hospitals or any other sector or teachers nobody wanted this wave of strikes because it further undermines recovery in those sectors which were already stretched before the pandemic and let's not get into the argument about whether or not it's a pandemic or the war in Ukraine that's causing this, it's not it's the deterioration in our public services which this Government hasn't just allowed at times it's felt as if they were fostering it and what are they doing they're bringing forward a bill which is somewhat akin to taking a mallet to peel a peach it will not undo that deterioration and it will not help our public sectors we're already in a situation where too many people go to sleep at night worried that if they have a heart attack or a stroke there will be no ambulance and this bill does not attack that problem the reason we have crisis this winter is because of the inaction of this Government they have failed the workers in the public sector it's nothing to do with trade unionism it's to do with the Government's failure we always say that when there's a strike it's a failure of both sides it's a cliche I know but the thing about cliches is that we use them because they're usually right these strikes are a failure and the Government with this bill is doing nothing to undo that Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker and I declare my interest as a member of the trade union and as a politician who has received donations from trade unions to my constituency Labour party and I'm proud that all of that is declared on the public record now my constituents want to see a minimum service level when it comes to transport unfortunately they're served by train companies like Avanti and Transpen and Express so even when it's not a strike day the chances of getting a train sometimes on time is just impossible and my constituents want to know that when they phone an ambulance it's going to get there in time the reality is that for many of my constituents I've heard from, particularly in the prezol and not end parts of my constituency the rural parts of the constituency when they phone an ambulance the waiting times are already unacceptable and that's not on a strike day this legislation therefore is not an attempt to fix our public services and to resolve the disputes which are raging around the country right now it's distract from their levels of failure this is a piece of legislation that's come with no consultation no impact assessment and this is a Government that has come forward with no employment bill an employment bill that could actually outlaw hire and rehire that could ensure that people have decent rights at work and could go a long way to fixing this broken relationship that now seems to exist and that this Government seeks to stoke by the legislation that we have before us tonight because these disputes will only be resolved by negotiation and reasonableness and by tabling this legislation the Government does nothing but stoke that division it just makes strikes more likely to happen and where we see minimum service levels in place on the continent we see more days lost to strike action, not less so in short this legislation is draconian it's there to sack the nurses it's counterproductive it will cause more days to be lost to strike action and it's unnecessary and I really do hope that the Government will instead take some opportunities to visit picket lines in their own constituencies and to speak to those workers who are out on strike and speak to striking workers when I'm with the postal workers on Fenton Street I know that they're suffering they're losing days pay as well but they're doing it because they are desperate to preserve that public service to make sure that everyone gets a decent fair pay a decent pension safely in the workplace because that's what trade unions are about as I really do urge the Government to be reasonable and to look again My game is great Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker I stand as a former shock steward and convener I also refer to my very proudly my register of interest do have a look I cannot begin to express my anger, dismay and indeed disgust this piece of draconian legislation I send my solidarity to those as there are no many in this Chamber of Will to those campaigning and as we speak demonstrating as we speak as they will do until we get rid of this draconian piece of legislation across the country yes we are seeing the worst strikes in decades railway workers on strike, nurses for the first time ever college of nursing on strike postal workers on strike bus drivers on strike ambulance staff on strike and now teachers on strike and many more I would have missed somebody on the list because there's that many people on strike and they're doing that for a reason they're doing that because of this cost of living crisis when the mortgages go up the gas bills are going up the electricity bills are going up the fill bills are going up they have the fundamental right which I heard sometimes members on the Government side talking about the rights to freedom freedom of speech about freedom to organise freedom to actually campaign and negotiate for a cost of living pay rise it's a fundamental British right and this is a real attack on democracy and people on the other benches and the government benches and some of them I do know and I've worked together with cross party should actually be ashamed of yourself certainly on this one instead of taking responsibility and addressing the real issues of course the Prime Minister is playing politics playing politics with people's lives and of course these very public servants are actually the public that some of the members across these benches are talking about that are inconvenienced hey presto, yes the strike does inconvenience people but let's stick to some of the facts look the ambulance workers who I visited not very long ago just before Christmas in the Warrington area that's Northwest Ambulance Trust that were striking it was the last resort they don't want to do that but they were providing the minimum level of service they were certainly doing that life and limb and I saw the ambulances going out so I've heard lots of myths this evening about that actually the status quo the current arrangements actually work but I will stand together with everybody tonight against draconian disgraceful piece of legislation which is standing up for the British workers and British people Neil Hanby Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker I'm speaking as a unison member and someone who's been a member of the RCN since 1984 prior to that I'm proud to have stood on the picket lines recently with the RMT, the CW, GMP and the RCN My constituents are members of unions they are workers and they are they form part of all of the workforce who are engaged in industrial action at the moment I want to give the Conservative Party the few that remain a bit of a reality check because it's not good enough to say it's everyone else's fault but ours when the fault lies at your door fairly and squarely now let me be clear it's not this government that did the heavy lifting during Covid it was doctors and nurses firefighters, railway workers postal workers, other key workers in supermarkets and many many others it is every key worker the Tory government now wants to demonise and threaten they are the heroes of the pandemic this government now treats them as a content what kind of a thank you is it to say we are going to force you to work and we will not help you any longer they are striking for decent pay and minimum safe levels to prevent risk to life and limb this bill reports to be about minimum service levels if only that were true try telling that to the NHS staff with an impossible workload he denied access to proven vital health and safety processes taking nursing for an example you talk about minimum levels nurses in this country work with roughly two to two and a half times the workload of that recommended by the RCM and the RCN the international comparisons that the government have set out don't take account of this intolerable work out load and they don't take account of the fact that the patient to staff ratio in other countries is significantly better than it is here the government pretend they are being responsible but they are being anything but they complain about affordability and I mentioned the amount of money that's gone into the hands of the 1% earlier it's not 21 trillion dollars it's 26 trillion dollars all the while this party have partied and profiteered throughout the pandemic while those key workers were on their knees the people of the UK are on their side striking is the only means they have to stem this vulgar neocain conservative tide of greed and restore dignity to their lives Im Johnson Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker and I'd like to refer to my register of interest and as a lifelong trade unionist and proud trade unionist I want to send my solidarity and support to all striking public sector workers and this government has already lost in the course of public opinion on their refusal to negotiate with striking workers so instead of getting around the table they're changing the rules of the game this bill grants the Secretary of State unprecedented powers to disrupt striking workers allowing management to pick and choose which of their employers should be on strike on router days to maintain legal minimum service provision effectively giving managers carte blanche to target union organisers and force them to cross their own picket lines upon the threat of losing their job and risking financial penalties for their union for failing to meet minimum service requirements on strike days The TUC has said has major concerns about the significant risk of discrimination if this is pushed through workers fighting for their jobs pay and conditions should not be threatened with the sack no worker votes for strike action lightly it's always a last resort and particularly for front line services the RCN in its 100 plus year history has never been on strike until recently and it never did so under a Labour government minimum service levels agreement has already exist in key life and limb services where health and safety is at risk indeed we often hear of situations where staffing levels are better on strike days due to legal requirements than on non strike days due to a massive shortfall in NHS staffing levels and we are facing the deepest crisis to our NHS since it began record waiting times a collapse in staff recruitment and retention patients waiting for hours in ambulance or a chair on a corridor and decades of wage stagnation and 13 years of austerity and selective amnesia from the members on the benches across the floor minimum service law will not solve our problems and the minister knows this well the government's own impact analysis has warned this bill could lead to even more strikes worsening industrialations prolonged disputes as well as reduced conditions for workers so to conclude Mr Speaker I would like to congratulate the national education union for their very successful strike ballot today and what their teachers are saying is enough is enough and this government needs to recognise that people can shave a few seconds off their speeches it would help to get everybody in Tommy Shepherd Mr Deputy Speaker I ask myself what problem is it that so afflicts the British state that it's government sees fit to bring forward a major piece of primary legislation is it really the case that militant pickets are stopping people getting life saving treatment at their workplace and callous trade unions are refusing to negotiate life and limb emergency cover and are people dying as a consequence the answer to all of those questions is no in fact we know of countless stories where trade unions have left their picket line protest and gone to make sure people do not die and when I asked the secretary of state earlier to say how many lives would be saved by this legislation he refused to answer perhaps because the answer is none so why then why is this being introduced now and I think the answer to that is quite simple we are approaching the five end of this Tory government their poll ratings are in the toilet their members are disillusioned their back bench MPs are increasing the despairing about their own survival and so in a desperate attempt to revive their fortunes they are trying to resurrect the strategy that the Thatcherites data generation ago they are trying to monster ordinary working people fighting for their rights they are trying to pretend that they are other that they somehow are against the public interest and therefore not deserving of public support but it will not work this time round because it has gone too far and there are too many people involved there is not a family in this land that does not know someone caught up in this dispute and there is not a family in this land that does not recognise the justice of their cause so they are not going to be able to do that this time round I thank one more friend for giving way to see agree with me that as we speak firefighters who run into Grenfell are now suffering and dying from cancer and it is workers like them who will be stopped from being able to protest and to be able to strike and that continues to be a disgrace well indeed I do and across the public sector we are looking at people who actually saved us in recent years from the trials of the pandemic these are people who should be venerated not demonised they should be paid not punished and the international comparisons that have been made in this debate are so spurious when you look at them there is not a single country in Europe that has legislation like this everywhere else where there are minimum standards they are negotiated there is no other country where you can be sacked for going on strike if your employer says not to that is what is proposed in this bill but most of all I think the proposals in relation to Scotland and the devolved relations are the most pernicious is it perhaps that the government is jealous or frustrated at the fact that the government in Scotland takes a different view that rather than demonised trade unions it will sit down with them and respect them and try within constraints to get a negotiated deal is it so furious at the Scottish Government in doing that that it now sees the need to export conflict across the border in our industrial relations because that is what is coming and it is a slap in the face to everyone who supports devolution because what this bill proposes is that in devolved services such as transport health and education the parameters for operation will not be set by the elected parliament in Edinburgh but will be set here by this place even if they don't fit those circumstances and people in Scotland will reject these proposals as they reject the other attempts to erode the limited power that they have and they will call for complete control over industrial relations in Scotland if you take an intervention by the way it's already not everyone's going to get in then more people will not get in Andy McDonnell Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker I refer to my entry in the register of interests it was always going to come to this where the ideological and deliberate attack on workers along with the carefully choreographed under resourcing of the very public services that the people of this country hold dear over these past 13 years have been so blatantly carved up for the spives and the profiteers and that comes hard up against the inevitable neoliberal endgame of in-work poverty and where workers are left with no choice of the stand up for themselves and their service and withdraw their labour they do so not because their own wages are insultingly and woefully low and shrinking in value and don't pay them enough to pay their soaring bills and rip out demand from the beleaguered and disastrously managed economy they do so in order to save the very service that they so cherish and what's the response from this lot on the government benches instead of listening to workers and coming up with a fair deal that they can accept or producing a plan to sustain public services into the future they hit out and turn the screws depriving working people of their basic civil liberties and human rights to organise and campaign for a better deal and I'm proud that this party has made it abundantly clear that this anti worker anti trade union sack the nurses bill will be immediately repealed when labour comes to power and that we will bring in the new deal for working people that our people so desperately need but this attack isn't new Mr Deputy Speaker at every turn especially in the thatchery era and in the past 13 years they have demonised trade unions as being the enemy within instead of as the force for good and the force for economic and social change for the benefit of working class that they truly are with their nasty pernicious propaganda spewed out by their chums in the right wing press this Tory government has delivered the biggest rallying call to working people that's been for many a year and I urge all those workers who want to protect themselves their industry their professional calling if they haven't done so to join a union today yes to take back control and fight for a better deal for themselves their families and their communities this isn't the way to build good industry relations it's the exact opposite so this is an important moment in our history and I have no doubt that the British people will have their say in full some measure when they turf these dreadful Tories out of office and that day can't come too soon Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker Thank you I declare my interest proud member of the trade union movement happy in army life will be till the day I die I just think that people in this debate tonight need to recognise that we shouldn't be surprised by the actions of the government we shouldn't be because the economy people cannot put the heat in any people are struggling to feed their families they cannot pay their mortgages so what happens they get together the Tories revert back to what they believe their best attacking ordinary working people attacking the trade unions the relationship they love it and that's what this is about the secondary estate should admit it the Tories are running scared they've finished the robusted flowch after 13 years of austerity and they should accept that but no attacking ordinary working people not Mr Deputy Speaker I think I speak for a lot of the people when I say this that isn't anything isn't anything in this world isn't anyone on this planet that could conscript me to cross a picket line doesn't matter what legislation the Tories wish to push forward it doesn't matter what rules what regulations what government dictate the put in place thou shall not cross a picket line Mr Deputy Speaker I'll just want to refer in the very short space of time I've got about the attacks on ordinary working people demonising the people who brought with through the pandemic the police, the transport workers the bus drivers the train drivers the people who work on the transport system the nurses the NHS workers the drivers these aren't mad Marxist militants they're not forced to be part of a trade union they're joined a trade union so Mr Deputy Speaker I would just say a champagne sales and luxury yacht sales go through the roof our key workers are sadly forced to use food banks I'm opposing this bill tonight and would urge every other member of Parliament to do so do so and respect the ordinary people who brought with through the pandemic and work hard for this country Mr Civil Roberts I would refer members to my register of interest because I entered politics as a teaching union rep I am still a trade union member I am the co-chair of the justice union's group and contrary to the myth that the opposite sides like to propagate I have taken not a single penny from the unions for political reasons and values and like Henry I'm sure it will come as no surprise therefore will be opposing this reprehensible legislation tonight nobody seeks to strike least of all the workers who lose a day's pay the strikes for health workers are a last resort from overwork staff who fear that patient safety is suffering because of increased demand and staff shortages what does the Government propose to do bring in sanctions that threaten to sack those very staff yet the UK Government has no interest in working with our key workers they'd rather pursue this socially divisive legislation in an attempt to distract from the daily disruption to public services caused by their own party's butchering of budgets 365 days a year perhaps the Minister can clarify whether this legislation will cause further disruption to businesses by undermining commitments made in the trade and cooperation agreement and promote social dialogue on labour matters among workers and employers not to reduce that legislation but to build upon it that is not what we are talking about today and it's been increasingly clear that our rights are not safe under Westminster control first our democratic right to protest now our democratic right to strike and next a bonfire of the protections hard won when workers were protected by membership of the EU of course the UK's Government disregard for Welsh workers comes as no surprise last summer they announced their intention to scrap the trade union Wales Act a law passed by our senate to protect workers in Wales the only way to give Wales the power to protect workers' rights for good from relentless Westminster attacks is to devolve employment law to Wales as is already the case and well before devolution took place in the late 90s in Northern Ireland and I urged the Labour Party to drop their opposition to this policy and support workers in Wales and Scotland as a matter of urgency but in the little time that we have and to bring my remarks to a close the easiest, safest and fairest way of guaranteeing minimum service provision is to ensure that key workers are able to do their jobs effectively by improving working conditions by bringing forward the long promised employment bill and giving workers the proper pay increases they need on the question of pay there must be recognition that public services in Wales face additional pressures due to a funding system that perpetuates high levels of property and the knock-on effect the poverty has on health and the reality of having an old older population than the rest of the UK now is the time for Westminster to recognise this and commit to the needs that public services in Wales require Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker I refer to my register of interests I'm proud union member and I was a trade union official before entering this place after 13 years of conservative government life for ordinary people in this country has got harder this country is again an outlier on workers rights and has been for some time what a sad indictment of a government that purports to be a standard bearer of democratic rights in defence of a free society this legislation am mounting to yes another brazen attack on an already fragile settlement for workers in this country flies in the face of the basic liberty to withdraw one's labour this legislation does not protect the public quite the opposite Mr Deputy Speaker this is a hastily put together bill that is incoherent unworkable and I am sure in time will prove unlawful this bosses charter will make it easier to sack workers across several sectors or paramedics or fire fighters or nurses or train guards and so many more it will not make those workplaces safer key workers are demanding a decent settlement admit an economic crisis that they have no part in creating workers that received the adulation and applause from conservative ministers throughout the pandemic only to be abandoned threatened, dehumanised when the going gets tough I will oppose this bill with every fibre of my being it was the trade union movement who delivered the weekend paid holiday paid sick leave equal pay, maternity and paternity rights as well as the minimum wage our collective role now on this side of the house is to defend the trade unions provide a voice for their members and our constituents in this place and prevent this latest attack on our communities and if the members opposite want to know how Labour would resolve these disputes they should tell their leader to call a general election and we'll soon find out Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker proud member of a trade union I begin by referring the house to my register the proposals before us today are unworkable they do nothing to adjust the reasons why workers go on strike instead attacking workers rights the government are imposing them and they are doing so as a distraction a distraction of the fact for 12 years they have given us an economy where wages have been squeezed and conditions have worsened let's be clear these strikes are a result of this government's strike failure industrial action is always a last resort workers on low pay do not choose to lose a day's wage unless they absolutely have to I know because I have been on strike I have been on strike as a low pay teacher I know the colleagues I taught with were concerned not just about their loss of income but the impact on the pupils we taught to suggest it's a decision that's taken lightly is simply wrong going on strike is personally a difficult decision but practically it isn't easy either we have some of the toughest trade union laws in Europe online voting and strike ballots is prohibited alongside a high threshold for both turnout and votes in favour required which puts into context the strength of feeling of those workers who have voted to withdraw their labour industrial action on the scale we are seeing today has not happened in a generation in 1984 14,000 miners went on strike in Barnsley 200,000 across the country to defend their industry and we still feel the economic effects of the loss of the pits today that was an attack on one industry by a government determined to destroy mining in this country this is an attack on all workers across the public sector a clear attempt to get workers to pay the price for this government's economic mistakes teachers, bus drivers, rail workers border force, ambulance drivers and nurses have all voted to strike the government is trying to label them the new enemy within but these are the people who kept our country going during the pandemic they want decent pay to provide for their families if the government want to get the country moving again they will pay them a decent wage and stop threatening them with a sack David Lendon Deputy Speaker isn't it amazing we were told so often throughout the course of this parliament one of the reasons why we don't have an employment bill is that there is no parliamentary time yet all of a sudden when we see the likes of Mclynch on television in Bay Boars who the government seem to think of a big button to cause chaos all of a sudden a bill comes forward that gives huge amounts of power to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy frankly when you look at clause 3 of this bill Mr Deputy Speaker I would rather put Robert MacGabbie in charge of the electoral commission and allow that lot the opportunity to be in charge of workers rights the reality is that it is already incredibly hard for workers to exercise their most basic fundamental human right with broader labour the thresholds are already very high and the people that I stand alongside with on picket lines whether it's at the Royal Mail or whether it's at Glasgow Central Station they don't want to be out on strike they're doing that when they lose a day's pay and so the government in particular this Secretary of State's attitude towards unions this is all about creating a wedge issue it's all about trying to make this huge division pit worker against worker the reality is in this country these countries we already have a very large public service and as my own friend from Edwin Beese was saying there's already huge amounts of people in our families or neighbourhoods who are taking this industrial action and the reality is that the legislation that's being brought forward by the government is not necessary this is not national security legislation this is not legislation that has to be rushed through in a day and the tawdry programme motion that's before the house ran this through in the space of five hours when we would be radically altering people's terms and conditions in their ability to work really does raise bigger questions about the direction of travel that this government is going on as other colleagues have said tonight they already want to remove people's ability to protest they want to remove people's ability to vote in the Scottish Parliament which has been democratically elected they're seeking tonight to block legislation that's been passed by two thirds of the parliament which has legislative competence this is a government that is going in the wrong direction and frankly Mr Deputy Speaker it only makes the case for us and the response to Donald Jenton from Brent North it only makes the case for us why we and the people of Scotland do not want to be a part of this absolutely crumbling democracy that has no legitimacy in Scotland and I'm really grateful for those who kept it well under three minutes because it's good Zara Sultana Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker I refer the House to my register of interest and note that I am a proud member of United Union Politics cost money and I'm proud to be backed by organisations that represent the working class not the billionaires or oil and gas profiteers or big businesses that bankroll the party opposite representing no one but themselves there was a brief period in the pandemic where we all recognised who keep our country running and it was in the city bankers, hotshot lawyers or big business executives it was the people who drive our buses sweep our streets, who post our mail it's people who teach our kids and nurse us back to health and briefly even the members opposite thank them they call them key workers and heroes and clap for them with cameras rolling but as key workers knew clapping doesn't pay the bills and with a decade of falling wages they couldn't go on as the cost of living has soared workers are saying enough is enough and they are demanding a better deal and of course the government's line has changed members opposite are now calling workers greedy saying that they're selfish they've started pitting workers against each other saying that railway workers couldn't get a pay rise if nurses weren't but that nurses weren't allowed a pay rise either and now they've stooped to this an anti-worker bill that threatens the civil liberties of us all this new law would see key workers like nurses, railway workers firefighters and teachers fired for going on strike from clapping nurses, they're sacking nurses they say it's about safety but that word isn't mentioned even once in the pages of this bill they say it's about bringing us in line with other European nations but Britain already has some of the most restrictive anti-union laws in the western world and no matter what they say it's definitely not about resolving current disputes it's only in flaming tensions and making negotiations harder what this bill is really about is shifting the balance of power weakening the power of workers and making it easier for bosses to exploit them and for the government to ignore them Mr Deputy Speaker I'd like to finish with a message to those watching at home who aren't sure about the strikes if your pay is too low and your bills are too high if you're struggling to make ends meet if you can't get a doctor's appointment you're not alone but the problem isn't striking workers your problem isn't migrants, refugees or trans people either or whoever the right wing press escaped goating today this Tory government and their 13 years of disastrous rule and the rigged economy that they've built because alongside record numbers of food banks, Britain has a record number of billionaires, record profits of big business and record wealth for the top 1% so let's bring together everyone who's had enough and from the picket line to parliament let's fight for a better deal I rise to speak as a power trade unionist since the age of 16 and our visa to the very end this government does not care about patients, passengers, parents or the public because that is not what their minimum service level bill is about. The bill is a shameful attack on the democratic right to strike at just six pages the bill does not even set out the boundaries of what is permissible this they say will be decided later by the secretary of state through regulation and not by parliament given the government the power without scrutiny to also shockingly override legislation made in the devolved Scottish parliament and the senate this is not democracy this is government by dick cat it's authoritarianism writ large the bill gives government the power to deny workers their right to strike their fundamental basic human right allowing employers to bring injunctions to prevent strike, sue unions and sat employees across the public sector including the NHS transport fire and rescue and education undermining workers rights to a fair way and improved terms and condition strikes are a symptom not the cause workers are being dragged into poverty and having to resort to strike action to make their voices heard and this government is trying to break them from voter suppression to the attack on our right to protest through to this anti strike bill the government intends to crush workers basic freedoms and yet we live in a democratic society strike action is the tool of last resort and the best negotiating power workers have against unscrupulous and callous employers the bill seeks to erode the rights of trade union to organise and drive fierce with the very soul of workers who could lose their protection from dismissal as a result of this bill our trade union and employment rights legislation are already weak you only have to look to some of less this government industry to see evidence of that where workers today are still being paid less than the minimum wage on zero hour contracts and Victorian workhouse conditions with no enforcement agency able to break the scandalous mistreatment of workers who are fearful and whose powers have been weakened in near silence in today's Britain not a single government factory in Leicester union in the same way this bill seeks obedience at the will of the state it allows for the punishment of unions and workers who do not comply with the so-called work notice the bill is not about providing a basic level of service to the public it's about breaking the growth of the trade union movement the right to strike will be controlled by the state and only permissible on government terms to resist means to be liable to huge penalties under this bill this bill is a threat to our basic rights it is draconian dehumanising and bullying it's class war and for the sake of our hard-won freedoms we must stand first. Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker I proudly draw the house tension ridges with interests Mr Deputy Speaker and our country's history of progress it should record in this house it's the trade unions that ended child labour is the trade unions that made workplaces safer going to holidays maternity and paternity paid sick leave equal pay legislation pensions workplace anti-discrimination laws and even the weekend and despite this the government would do well to remember that trade unions made immensely positive contribution to society a strong trade union movement was a cornerstone of any healthy functioning democracy and indeed a more equal fair and prosperous society but the good news is that trade union membership is on the rise a net increase of 200,000 new members over the past three years of online inquiries to the EUC surging by 700% over this summer organised labour Mr Deputy Speaker is back and it's going absolutely nowhere. Lit emails from this government have shockingly shown that ministers are deliberately deliberating on an outright ban on trade union membership, strike action and even introducing further restrictions on democratic right to withdraw labour. Last this house why might be this? Striking workers have won for themselves double digit pay rises across various sectors from bus drivers to BT engineers as well as better conditions and end outsourcing support for strike action is at an all-time high with the public. There are many many trade union leaders who have more popularity than any government minister right now in 2023. We've seen Mr Deputy Speaker that the government's own impact assessment on this bill has said that this could mean more actions taken more frequently as a way to pressure employers. This legislation seems particularly short-sighted and even at odds with what many train operating companies have actually wanted. What happens when 100% of passengers try to get 40% minimum service level trains as Mick Whedon from the ASLIF said. Ultimately this bill will do nothing to help resolve disputes or support good industrial relations in fact it will do absolutely the opposite. In the short time I have remaining I'll focus on one thing from last week the sector of state told me that the ILO had common practice in authorising minimum service levels being neglected to mention however the ILO imposes restraints on the circumstances in which such powers can be used. The antithesis of the blank check this bill will give him and other ministers. This government's attempts to draw comparisons with minimum service levels in Europe wholly ignore the broader context of industrial relations across the content continent where they have far higher levels of collective bargaining agreements. In fact what I would say is that these proposals are more akin to the practice using countries like Singapore and Turkey when strikes can be undermined at the win of a government totally disingenuous to suggest otherwise. This legislation gives employers ministers extraordinary powers. Firefighters, nurses, teachers and the same key workers governance praise will find them liable to be inhibited from striking. It is unnecessary. This is half a mile before the windup start and there's more than 10 people so do the maths please come within the three minutes in order to get everybody in. Chris Stevens Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker I refer to my register of interest my position as chair of the PCS parliamentary group, my manager of unison Glasgow city branch. Mr Deputy Speaker they started with clapping workers in the doorsteps and they're ending with clapping them in irons. Each of the staff mentioned in this bill worked hard to protect our communities through crisis after crisis but if they now wish to protect their own families then they're now being threatened with dismissal. The false respect shown to them for their dedication and commitment has now been a removal of their most fundamental human rights. None of the countries that they've mentioned and mentioning the ILO none of the countries mentioned have the restrictions in terms of balloting and notification requirements to strike and do not impose those. So if they are want to be consistent about the ILO then let's bring back the trade union bill and let's discuss those thresholds and those restrictions. Mr Deputy Speaker another problem with the bill is the issue of arbitration. Now in Europe there's a social partnership model to these things so workers and employers can try to reach agreement on things but the bills proposals seek to remove the central arbitration committee and that would turn cooperation into conflict. And we're now being advised that it's this Secretary of State who would be the sole archer. This Secretary of State, Mr Deputy Speaker who's arrogant and ignorant performance this afternoon shows everything that we always suspected that they're clueless when it comes to industrial action. This is a Secretary of State who tweeted last year that the week, I called the weekend a non-strike day and he's to be the one that's to be the arbiter of this. As Dennis Healy once said there are some people Mr Deputy Speaker who should be gobsmacked up berth and there are Mr Deputy Speaker the issue of using trade union activists as a weapon that trade union activists will be picked to be the ones attending work and that they're going to be the ones who are going to be challenged to cross a pick of line and if they do not do so they will be dismissed. A completely disproportionate action and in Europe actually Mr Deputy Speaker what happens is the norm that they would lose their pay which would be seen more proportionate than automatic dismissal with no protection to take that forward to industrial action. So Mr Deputy Speaker I will be fundamentally opposing this bill here, today, tomorrow and any other day of the week. Thank you. Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker I refer members to my register of interests in fact I'm a member of unison. My constituent Peter died in February 2021 he was a proud railwayman he lived in Lemington he died of Covid he worked on the front line through the pandemic I saw him every week like many other public I was only able to get to this place or to a place of work because of people like Peter, like Charlotte like Joe, Nick and others elsewhere emergency service workers healthcare workers and other front line workers held this country together I want to speak tonight Meanwhile we were urged to clap the Prime Minister partied and emerging from the worst of the pandemic these workers deserve our gratitude but not just gratitude they deserve the right reward the public understands this they want resolution to the disputes they want due recognition to those workers because the public also understands that after 12 years of pay frozen or near frozen through austerity they deserve better the public knows that for many real wages have fallen since 2010 nurses received 5,000 pounds less in real terms that we have the highest inequality of major nations in Europe Mr Deputy Speaker the great irony is that this is a government that itself is incapable of meeting minimum standards or service the serial breaking of the ministerial code breaking the law a government that illegally prorog Parliament Mr Deputy Speaker the public knows this legislation is not necessary it is a deliberate attempt to distract to divide opinion and further attempt to erode workers rights if Peter was still with us he would be standing by his colleagues he would be striking and is for Peter for all those workers that I will be opposing this legislation thank you Matt for that Gerald Jones Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker can I also refer the House to my entry in the register of interest I stand as a lifelong trade unionist and the proud member of the GMB and ASDO Mr Deputy Speaker let us speak clear this truly is a winter of discontent visited upon the country by this conservative government railway staff on strike and driving examinants for the first time in their hundred and six year history nurses are on strike and rather than threatening hard pressed workers the government should be sitting around the negotiating table trying to secure a solution I support the trade unions and colleagues at the TUC who work tirelessly day in day out to make life better for working people this bill is a mark of this government failure they have failed to engage in effective negotiation and now they think that they can legislate their way of the mess they've created this clearly is about trying to divert attention the government noted the bill before us tonight is unworkable and impractical the transport secretary admits it won't work the education secretary doesn't want it the bill represents one of the most restrictive and interventionist attacks on the right to strike witness in generations and the government's proposals are simply unworkable and undemocratic it's clear that the bill isn't about public safety as we've heard time and time again the bill doesn't mention safety once we're all on minimum standards of service and staffing in the NHS on our whalers that ministers are failing to provide it at all with their abdication of responsibility it is well known that the collective bargaining is widely recognised as the most effective routes for delivering sustainable pay increases tackling inequality at work and promoting investment in skills training and productivity so rather than adopt the worst practices from other countries the government should commit to improving workers' rights fire and rehire tactics and promote collective bargaining I'm proud as a Labour Member of Parliament of working alongside our trade unions to secure a Labour Government who would put a new deal for working people and to oppose any attempt by this Government to undermine trade unions on workers' rights a new Labour Government would repeal these measures sign an employment billing to law within the first 100 days in power will end the Tory strikes chaos with a new partnership of cooperation between trade unions, employers and Government being an issues that are resolved before strikes workers in Britain know that Labour is on their side so let's have the general election and let's have it now I will oppose this Bill tonight Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker and I begin by joining many of my humble friends and declaring an interest in the final scene of Redstone I'm proud to be a Member of the United Union and I spent more than 54 years of my life in the Labour movements to make support on the shop floor as a student convener across the north west of England as a united regional secretary The business secretary has sought to assure honourable members that this Government will always defend ability to work ability to withdraw their Labour I can only conclude in this rush of steamboat this Bill through the Commons is neglected to read it for himself because this Bill sets out to do the direct opposite to the people of their democratic rights to engage in lawful and legitimate strike action Last week I warned this Government in its attempting to achieve through legislation what has been unable to secure in negotiations with trade unions but the Secretary of State is grieving and mistaken if he believes that this Bill will put an end to the wave of industrial action when our witnessing This is not a recipe for how normally swearplace relations this draconian response to the same key workers who ministers applauded through the pandemic will only strengthen the strike as resolved while forcing unions to find more creative and destructive ways to make their voices heard The business secretary must also understand that the Labour movements is prepared to fight these proposals all the way in this house and through to the other place through the courts and in workplaces all over the country he believes that he can fully work on the services submission will prove them wrong Indeed, soon enough the Government will find itself in court having to explain how this Bill can be reconciled with the UK's obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights not to mention convention 87 of the independent Labour organisation but the legal market awaiting ministers in this court of law is not in compared to the reckoning awaiting them in the court of public opinion The British public does not support this Bill When they see the architects of austerity condemning frontline workers for striking prepared pay they know who side they're on They recognise that the issues now driving ambulance drivers, nurses and firefighters through the picker line from low pay to unsustainable workloads are the same issues that they face in their own working lives and they understand that strikes aren't to blame for our broken rail network and overwhelmed hospitals These strikes aren't the cause of a symptom of a crumbling public sector which has been hallowed hallowed to its core by 12 long years of Tory cuts Thank you I refer to my register of interests as a proud member of Unite the Union The trade unions have a long established an essential part of our national life We take off stand by these pillars of our British society as it has gradually developed and evolved itself of the right of individual labouring men to adjust their wages and conditions by collected bargaining including the right to strike Now they're not the words of a trade union giant nor even a Labour politician they are the words of the late Winston Churchill but today his own party intends to unashamedly deny workers those very fundamental rights he believed in with a bill that threatens key workers with the sack for simply exercising their right to raise the alarm on low pay erosion of terms and conditions and grave concerns over the safety and future of their sectors and worse still the government does this in full knowledge that the proposals in the bill are almost certainly illegal and that includes breaching the Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights, international labour organisation conventions and various other statutes and the government is shamefully claiming that the reason behind this legislation is apparently because NHS trade unions were not providing minimum service agreements on strike days this just isn't true our ambulance workers like our nurses have never gone on strike without first putting agreements for life and limb cover in place so it's therefore no surprise then that the government has refused to publish any required impact assessments and what's even more absurd is the notion that this bill will somehow reduce the propensity for strike action we only need to look back in history to know that such authoritarian legislation has the opposite effect now instead of this bill the government should be listening to the concerns of key workers they should be facilitating negotiations but instead they seek to divide a nation and demonise, demoralise and even threaten to sack the very workforce who has tried to hold our country together and so returning to Winston Churchill there are no Winston Churchill's on the opposite benches today and I have no doubt that he would be absolutely devastated and disgusted that his party was treating our workforce with such disdain Deputy Speaker can I refer the House to the register of members' interests and I was also a trade union lawyer for 10 years before being elected to parliament this bill comes in the context of an attack on the right to vote, an attack on the right to peacefully protest and now an attack on the democratic right to strike and I want to read out what human rights what shed last week they said and I quote in 2022 we saw the most significant assault on human rights protections in decades and they went on to warn that and I quote fundamental and hard one rights have been systematically dismantled and it's in the light of that that I want to look at a few key provisions in this bill in the time that I've got just part and parcel of that authoritarian attack on our hard one rights the very first clause makes no bones about it it explicitly says that this bill is about restricting the protection to trade unions and employees in relation to strikes and then we move on to the schedule where it talks about the power of the Secretary of State to specify minimum service levels now the act doesn't specify what the minimum service levels should be so we've got to ask ourselves this question do we think it's right to hand to the Secretary of State as an individual the power to make such decisions what level of service requirement would be seen as going too far in the eyes of a anti union union bashing right wing conservative Secretary of State 40% 60% 85% 90% if there's some trouble in the Tory party and they want to throw some red meat to their hard right wing back benches and party members and then we move on to the very broad categories of the services that are covered how will education services be interpreted how will transport services be interpreted very very widely I should expect and then we look at the work notice a work notice must identify the persons required to work during the strike and specify the work required to be carried out this is chilling authoritarianism we're going to see workers who lawfully voted to strike ordered to go in to work that's chilling and then finally work notices no protection if union fails to take reasonable steps this completely changes the role of trade unions absolutely appalling what is going to be expected is for trade union officials to be outside the workplace on picket lines telling workers who voted lawfully to strike to go to work that completely subvert and changes the role of trade unions and attacks trade unions as an institution this bill is appalling it needs to be dropped Margaret Greenwood I stand as a trade unionist in solidarity with my constituents taking strike action and workers across the country we're seeing widespread strikes in the public sector because of the abject failure of over 12 years of Conservative government the government has pushed nurses ambulance workers after the bring they're taking strike action not just on pay but as part of their campaign for patient safety and as they have told me to save the national health service yet now the government wants to repay them by threatening them to sack them for doing so constituents has written to me to tell me that they are appalled this bill is a shameful attack on the rights of working people Richard Arthur's head of trade union law at Thompson's List has said the introduction of minimum safety levels does not comply with the United Kingdom's legal obligations under convention number 87 of the International Labour Organization of Freedom Association of Protection of Rights and Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights is one of many who expect there to be legal challenges to this bill. Last October the government published a transport strikes bill allowing minimum service levels to be introduced during strikes in certain transport services seems that this bill has now been superseded by the one that we're debating today in the European Convention of Human Rights memorandum that that bill the government set out why minimum service requirements do not comply to other sectors so just a few months ago they were clear that important factors already existed in other sectors to mitigate the impacts of industrial action in those sectors on wider society in health it pointed to the fact that unions include guidance to their members on their approach to life and limb arrangements so why have ministers changed their minds now they are saying that they are introducing this legislation to ensure that striking workers don't put the public's lives at risk that is an insult to workers who kept the country running during the Covid-19 pandemic and themselves at considerable risk and in particular it is an insult to nursing unions and representative bodies who worked hard to ensure that there would be cover for urgent cases during their strike as the TUC points out this bill is the government's latest attack on the right to strike and I will be voting against it this evening Beth, winter Thank you I make reference to my entry in the register to the proud former employee of the UCO and I'm also a proud member of Unite Mr Deputy Speaker this bill exposes this Tory government's contempt and disregard for working people whose difficulties have been caused by them its purpose is to dismantle the trade union movement and workers' rights and entrusts yet greater powers to the government it is authoritarian and affront to democracy it does not establish minimum service levels for strikes these will follow in regulations deprived of the proper scrutiny afforded to primary legislation and it doesn't ensure the safety of the public in times of industrial acts