INDUSTRIAL ACTION IN PUBLIC ENTERPRISES: THE LEGAL ISSUES
| Author | GILLIAN MORRIS |
| Date | 01 June 1985 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1985.tb00902.x |
| Published date | 01 June 1985 |
NOTES
AND
SURVEYS
227
Watson,
T.
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1977.
The personnel managers.
London: Routledge and
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Watson,
T.
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1983.
Towards a general theory
of
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Womack,
B.,
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Handel,
M.
Cuming. 1973. Personnel Management
in
the public service.
Personnel
Nottingham: Trent Business School, Occasional Paper
Series
2.
Management February,
24.
INDUSTRIAL ACTION IN PUBLIC ENTERPRISES: THE LEGAL
ISSUES
I
Introduction
The last few years have brought increasing pressure for further legal restrictions
on
industrial action in ’essential’ public sector services. Groups which before the
last decade or
so
would not have taken industrial action, such as doctors, nurses
or higher-grade civil servants, have shown themselves willing to do
so
and groups
which previously may have taken only very limited forms of action are now
prepared to impose more drastic sanctions. Moreover, resort to industrial action
by highly-trained professional groups, and increasing technological complexity in
areas such as electricity and water supply, have meant that one traditional British
solution to disruption of essential services, sending in the troops, can
no
longer
be relied upon.
The Institute of Directors sees strikes in public sector monopolies as the most
urgent problem to be solved by labour law reform; it advocates compulsory binding
arbitration as the last stage of disputes procedures in essential services, with
industrial action in breach of procedure receiving no immunity against tortious
liability. It also favours decentralizing collective bargaining in these areas and
establishing separate employer units, together with substantial elements of privatiza-
tion. The Centre for Policy Studies has proposed that strikes in the fire, health,
nuclear power and sewerage services should be prohibited altogether, with particu-
larly severe punishment where withdrawal of the service leads to death or serious
injury. It suggests linking the pay
of
workers in these services to the retail price
index and compulsory arbitration for disputes over other matters. The Social
Democratic Party wants compulsory arbitration where industrial action threatens
life and limb.
The 1979 Conservative election manifesto, which followed the ’winter of
dis-
content’ disputes in the road haulage industry, National Health Service, and national
and local government, promised that industrial action in essential servies would
be restricted, but its Green Paper on Trade Union Immunities published in 1981
was much less enthusiastic, and concluded that voluntary ‘no-strike’ agreements
seemed the best avenue to pursue. However, the
1983
water strike reawakened
Conservative zeal for change. The party’s 1983 election manifesto stressed the need
for ’adequate procedure agreements’ in essential services and promised consulta-
tions on removing immunity from industrial action
in
breach of procedure. It seems
that this will be the next stage
of
the Government’s ’step by step’ programme of
labour law reform.
~~~~~~~
Public Administration
Vol.
63 Summer 1985 (227-235)
0
1985 Royal Institute
of
Public Administration
ISSN
0033-3298 $3.00
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