Trade unions will be forced to put pay offers to a vote among their members as Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng plans a fresh crackdown on crippling strikes. In his 'emergency Budget' this morning, Mr Kwarteng announced new laws to ensure industrial action can only take place once talks between employers and unions 'have genuinely broken down'.
And there's more...
Mr Kwarteng said: 'Other European countries have minimum service levels to stop militant trade unions closing down transport networks during strikes.
'So we will do the same. And we will go further.
'We will legislate to require unions to put pay offers to a member vote, to ensure strikes can only be called once negotiations have genuinely broken down.'
Why wasn't this done before, one wonders?
Former Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who was sacked by new Prime Minister Liz Truss this month, welcomed the Chancellor's announcement.
'This is one of the items from my 16-point-plan I presented this summer for tackling "forever strikes" and means four of the measures are now underway,' the ex-Cabinet minister said.
Ah. Well, maybe you wouldn't be an 'ex-Cabinet Minister' if you'd moved it up your plan a bit, eh, Grant?
