RAIL UNION RMT warned today (Friday September 22, 2023) that the Tory anti-union minimum service laws would if used worsen industrial relations, prolong disputes and lead even more days or strikes and new novel forms of action.

The union was responding to a new Transport Committee report released today challenging the government’s ‘minimum service levels’ regulations for railway strikes. 

While the new draconian anti-union legislation became law earlier this year details of those regulations and how they could work in practice have yet to be unveiled by the Department for Transport (DfT). 

Following its inquiry, the cross-party Committee has demanded that if any such legislation was used it must ensure that safety for staff and the travelling public must be the primary consideration and that Industrial disputes must not be neither been prolonged nor increased.  

Transport Committee Chair Iain Stewart MP said: “We can’t accept an increased risk of lives being put in danger due to a lack of key staff such as signallers, or of those with access needs being neglected if they experience difficulty”.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that the profoundly flawed legislation were untested proposals dreamt up in Tory think tanks that would inevitably lead to more chaos on the railways and increase safety risks.

“Instead of attacking workers right to strike the government should spend its energy on resolving the national rail disputes.

“We have reached settlement in Scotland and Wales which demonstrates that the real reason for the current dispute is the union busting agenda of the UK government,” he said.