THE Tories suffered a setback yesterday in their drive to legalise strike breaking when the High Court ruled that its agency worker regulations are unlawful.
These strike breaking regulations were steamrollered through Parliament in June last year by the Tories in the face of massive wave of strike action by workers, determined to fight for pay increases to defend their families from spiralling increases in the cost-of-living.
Since 1976 it had been illegal for employers to bring in agency workers to replace strikers, or for companies to supply agency workers to break strikes or any other type of industrial action.
Eleven trade unions in a legal action, co-ordinated by the TUC, brought legal proceedings against the Tory changes to regulations, while a further two unions took separate legal action to protect the legal right to strike.
The unions argued that the Tories had removed the existing regulations without any consultation with the unions and ignored all the warnings that these new regulations would worsen industrial disputes, undermine the fundamental right to strike and put the public in danger by replacing skilled workers with untrained agency staff.
In their judgement delivered yesterday, the judges sided with the unions, and ruled that the conduct of the then Secretary of State for Business, Kwasi Kwarteng, was ‘so unfair as to be unlawful and, indeed, irrational’.
They further went on to say: ‘The approach of Mr Kwarteng was to commit to the revocation of regulation 7 (which outlawed the use of agency staff to break strikes) at a time when the advice to him was that it would be of negligible short-term benefit and probably counterproductive.’
In fact, everyone, including the bosses of companies supplying agency workers, realised the new Tory regulations were the product of a desperate Tory government thrashing around for ways to break strikes that would only pour petrol on an already explosive confrontation between the working class and the bosses.
They realised that the sight of temporary semi-trained agency staff driving trains, or replacing nurses and NHS workers ambulance workers would lead to an uprising against the Tory government with the call for a general strike to defend the right to strike becoming the central demand of workers.
The High Court has now upheld the claim from the unions and TUC that these regulations should be overturned on the grounds they are ‘unproductive’ but this leaves intact more ‘productive’ laws for breaking strikes and destroying the independence of trade unions.
Commenting on the ruling, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: ‘This defeat is a badge of shame for the Conservatives’ before going on that the same ‘reckless approach’ is behind the current anti-strike bill still making its way through Parliament.
On the back of this defeat in the Court, Nowak said: ‘Ministers should spare themselves further embarrassment’ by junking the anti-strike bill as well.’
The Tory Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill goes much further than the regulations overturned yesterday. This bill, if passed, will force workers to cross picket lines or face instant dismissal. Unions that refuse to cooperate with the bosses in enforcing strike breaking will be liable for million-pound fines.
An act of Parliament passed into law that makes it illegal for workers to strike, while forcing unions to act as enforcers for the bosses, is not just a change in regulations but a legal onslaught on the hard won right of workers for independent unions and the right to strike.
As a fully debated piece of legislation it will not be overturned by the courts on the grounds of rationality or fairness.
The Tories have suffered a setback but the only way to defeat the anti-strike laws is for the working class to force the TUC to immediately call a general strike to junk the Tory government, replacing it with a workers government and socialism.
Leaders like Nowak who refuse to mobilise the strength of the working class must be removed and replaced with a leadership prepared to organise for the working class to take power.
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