{"id":846,"date":"2023-02-10T07:28:53","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T07:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redstarwealth.co.uk\/blog\/?p=846"},"modified":"2023-02-10T07:28:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T07:28:53","slug":"the-strikes-minimum-service-levels-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redstarwealth.co.uk\/blog\/the-strikes-minimum-service-levels-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Government plans for a new law on minimum service levels during industrial action could leave workers being denied their right to strike.<\/p>\n

Waves of Strikes<\/h2>\n

There is a seemingly constant wave of strikes recently due to huge hikes in inflation without adequate wage increases to match. This is causing huge amounts of disruption for the UK public, which can certainly be frustrating, but that is the point of strikes!<\/p>\n

If we can recognise that these workers striking is causing this much disruption, we can also recognise how much we rely on their service. If we need their services this much to go about our daily lives, surely we can also understand why they deserve to be fairly paid.<\/p>\n

If we take nurses as an example, their average pay has failed to increase in line with inflation or with private sector wage increases for over a decade, meaning real wage decreases over time. Over the course of a year between 2021 and 2022 in England, 1 in 9 nurses left active service<\/a>. We need to ask ourselves why, and the answer seems quite clear\u2026 why would people want to work somewhere heavily understaffed, where they are overworked and underpaid?<\/p>\n

Since June 2022, many workers have undergone strikes, including (but not limited to) the following professions:<\/p>\n