The Westminster government has announced new authoritarian “minimum service levels” for the fire and rescue service. This legislation amounts to an attempt to ban firefighters, control staff and other workers from taking strike action.
These new regulations will only apply in England, with the other parts of the UK left out.
Under them, fire service employers will be able to issue “work notices” during any period of strike action so that 73% of fire appliances are crewed and that services “attend all emergencies as usual”. Fire control rooms will be expected to run as if a strike was not happening.
Named workers who refuse to comply could face dismissal.
FBU general secretary Matt Wrack described this as “an attack on the pay and conditions of firefighters and other workers. The Fire Brigades Union will resist this dictatorial legislation in every way possible.”
Each fire and rescue service employer will have the power not to issue “work notices”, and local pressure will be key to making this happen.
Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has vowed that “the Scottish government will never issue or enforce a single work notice”, and the Welsh government has also voiced opposition to the legislation.
Rail bosses recently failed to impose minimum service levels on LNER workers, withdrawing the threat after ASLEF escalated planned strike action.
Services must attend all emergencies as usual and fire control rooms will be expected to run as if a strike was not happening
Alongside fire and rescue, the laws threaten the right to strike in services including rail, ambulance, education and more.
The wider trade union movement continues to mobilise against these attacks, with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) committed to a campaign of resistance, up to and including non-compliance and non-cooperation.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “We will fight these draconian laws all the way – working with the FBU and every other union affected. And we won’t rest until these laws are off the statute book.”
FBU members joined thousands of workers protesting the anti-strike laws this January in Cheltenham, at a demonstration supported by the TUC.
Organised by PCS civil service union, the march marked 40 years since the Thatcher government’s attempt to ban GCHQ workers from trade union membership. This ban was overturned by the Labour government in 1997, following a long campaign of defiance by GCHQ workers.
The Labour party has pledged to repeal the Minimum Service Levels Act, as well as the 2016 Trade Union Act, within the first 100 days of taking office.
