Tory plan to restrict the right to strike

The prime minister yesterday revealed that a future Conservative government will introduce strike ballot thresholds in essential services – although it is not yet clear whether new laws will require at least 50% of affected workers to cast votes in a strike ballot or an absolute majority of those workers balloted to support strike action. There has been sustained lobbying for more anti union legislation from Tory MPs and big business, notably the Institute of Directors which has published a raft of proposals to restrict the right to strike, the first of which is a so called ‘double lock-in vote’ – a requirement that 50% of union members balloted must support strike action as well as a majority of those voting. This will be an impossible hurdle to overcome in large scale national ballots.