Rayner warned commerce unions might be free to inflict crippling strikes

Union barons would be free to inflict crippling strikes on the public even if less than half of workers vote on proposed walkouts, under plans being considered by the new Government.

Ministers are locked in ‘ongoing discussions’ about lowering the legal threshold for the percentage of workers who must vote in favour of strikes for them to be legal, it emerged yesterday.

The plan would involve repealing part or all of the Trade Union Act 2016, which states that strikes can only go ahead if 40 per cent of members approve on a turnout of 50 per cent.

The law was introduced by the Tories under David Cameron to stop hard-Left union bosses holding the country to ransom with strikes only voted for by a fraction of members.

But Labour sources yesterday said it was the government’s ‘intention’ to repeal the 2016 Act.

One government insider added: ‘There are ongoing discussions about what it (the thresholds) could be lowered to and how that would work. No one is proposing scrapping them completely.’

The talks involve Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, a former trade union official, and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, with the former said to be pushing for a lower threshold.

The two-week notice period which unions must give for each strike is likely to remain in place.

The disclosure last night sparked fresh accusations that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government was caving in to its union ‘paymasters’ and that it risks plunging Britain back into 1970s-style levels of militancy.

It came after Ms Rayner and Mr Reynolds wrote to Government departments yesterday announcing plans to repeal separate anti-strike laws introduced under Rishi Sunak.

The pair said that a new Employment Rights Bill will quash the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 as part of a wider bid to ‘reset industrial relations’. The legislation will be introduced after summer recess.

Union bosses lined up to hail the move. But critics fear it will embolden the unions and effectively give a ‘green light’ to call crippling strikes across the NHS, schools, ambulance service, Border Force, rail and fire services if their future pay demands aren’t met.

Mr Sunak introduced the 2023 Act to force union bosses into providing a minimum level of services on strike days to limit their disruption to the public.

Kevin Hollinrake, the Tories’ Shadow Business and Trade Secretary, said: ‘By surrendering to their union paymasters, Labour are showing us who is really in charge.

‘We put the interests of the British public first through our Minimum Service Levels Act, making sure that the militant unions could not cripple the railways, schools or the NHS.

‘But Labour are placing access to emergency care and schools staying open at risk just to appease the unions.’ Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘This should not surprise anyone. The unions are Labour’s paymasters at the end of the day.

‘It’s looking more and more like Starmer’s more to the Left than people think he is.

‘He’s now going to bring in serious trade union reforms, getting rid of all the big constrictions we put on them.

‘If we’re not careful, we’re heading towards all the lessons learned in the 1970s being reversed.

‘You’ll have trade unions thinking they’ve had 14 years of Conservative government and now’s the time to cash in and run riot.’ Labour has already agreed to inflation-busting pay hikes of 5.5 per cent for most public sector workers, at a cost of £9.4billion, and has offered junior doctors a 22 per cent increase.

Train drivers could also be in line for a 10 per cent hike.

In their letter to Government departments, Ms Rayner and Mr Reynolds said officials should ignore the 2023 Act because it will soon be repealed by the Employment Rights Bill.

They argued that the legislation has failed to stop strikes because it hasn’t yet been used and claimed it made industrial action worse after souring relations with the unions.

The Employment Rights Bill will also set out measures which have been criticised by some business leaders, including scrapping zero hours contracts and making access to sick pay and other benefits available from day one.

It will also include a new right for staff to ‘switch off’ outside of working hours and not be contacted by their employer.

Labour’s manifesto contained no mention of repealing the Trade Union Act 2016, but pledged to ‘strengthen the collective voice of workers, including through their trade unions’.

Ms Rayner said: ‘Attempting to clamp down on the fundamental freedom of working people has got us nowhere and this was targeted at sectors who dedicate their lives to serving us all.

‘That’s why we’re scrapping this pointless law and creating a new partnership between business, trade unions and working people.’ Mr Reynolds added: ‘These divisive laws haven’t resolved a single strike since they were introduced.

‘By removing minimum service levels, we will reset industrial relations, so they are based on good faith negotiation and bargaining.’ More than 5million days are estimated to have been lost to industrial disputes in the UK between June 2022 and December 2023.

Mick Lynch, boss of the militant RMT rail union, said: ‘We welcome this move as an opportunity to reset industrial relations in Britain and to move to a position of negotiating just settlements to disputes rather than having trade unions attacked and demonised.’ Professor Philip Banfield, head of the BMA doctors’ union, said: ‘The Minimum Services Level law was a cynical attempt to respond to workers’ genuine concerns around their pay and conditions by suppressing them rather than working with them.

‘Such draconian measures quite rightly belong in the dustbin of legislative history.’