New law to ensure transport services keep running during strike action

The Government is introducing a new law which aims to ensure that transport services keep running during industrial action.

The Transport Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill means will guarantee a certain level of services will still run.

This, the Department for Transport (DfT) says will allow passengers to go to work, attend school and make vital medical appointments, and allow businesses to continue to grow the economy.

Economists, who assessed the first wave of rail strikes in June, say the industrial action cost the UK economy almost £100 million.

Prime Minister Liz Truss said: “Hardworking people and businesses should not be held to ransom by strike action which has repeatedly crippled our transport network this year.  

“This legislation delivers on our 2019 manifesto and will not only limit the unions’ ability to paralyse our economy but will ensure passengers across the country can rightly continue to get to work, school or hospital.

Transport secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan added: “It is vital that public transport users have some continuity of service to keep Britain moving and growing – this legislation will give everyone the certainty they need to carry on with their daily lives.”

The legislation will mean that a minimum service level must be in place during transport strikes – if this is not delivered, the unions will lose legal protections from damages; and employers will specify the workforce required to meet an adequate service level during strikes and unions must take reasonable steps to ensure an appropriate number of specified workers still work on strike days.

Specified workers who still take strike action will lose their protection from automatic unfair dismissal.

The bill will set out the legal framework to allow minimum service levels to not only be set across the entire transport sector, but also implemented and enforced.

The specific details of how minimum service levels will apply to transport services will be set out in secondary legislation in due course after a public consultation.

The intention of the legislation is that relevant employers and unions agree a minimum service level to continue running during all strikes over a three-month period.

If such a level cannot be agreed, an independent arbitrator – the Central Arbitration Committee – will determine the minimum number of services.

The bill undertook its first reading yesterday (Wednesday, October 19).

The legislation is expected to come into force on transport services across the country in 2023 and follows similar rules already in place in countries across Europe, including France and Spain.