Businesses should be able to recruit agency staff to cover industry strikes

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Businesses should be able to recruit agency staff to cover industry strikes

Good news for contractors: The CBI is today calling for changes in the law to raise the threshold for industrial action, and to ensure that when strikes occur, they are resolved more efficiently with minimised disruption to production and the customer.

The report released by the Confederation of British Industries, ‘keeping the wheels turning: modernising the legal framework of industrial relations’, details how the CBI have developed a package designed to modernise employment relation legislations and keep the economic recovery on track.

CBI predicts that although most work disputes are resolved through negotiations, industrial action across the public sector could increase as the Government takes more steps to reduce the deficit, having a knock on effect on the industrial sector and its employees.
The CBI proposals are designed to make alterations/improvements to employment law that will ensure strikes remain a last resort for employees, and in the event of a strike, the CBI wish to make it so businesses can continue to provide their services problem free. The CBI hopes to do this by introducing a new legislation allowing for companies to be able to recruit agency staff to be able to provide cover for the striking workers. As the law stands now, businesses can only recruit temps directly and not via a recruitment agency to cover for strikes.

The key measures the CBI would like to introduce:

• Employers able to use agency temporary workers to cover for striking workers.
• Notice period for industrial action – From 7 to 14 days.
• Strikes must have – 40% of balloted members support & a simple majority voting overall decision.
• Only paid union members allowed to vote, furthermore unions must keep their records up to date.
• Union members must be aware of the implication of going on strike, e.g. warning that pay and non-contractual benefits can be withdrawn if an employee goes on strike. Unions should also face sanctions for failiure to observe the Law.