The UK Government is considering bringing in new laws which would make rail strikes illegal unless a certain number of staff are still working.
The minimum staffing requirement proposal comes as the threat of a major industrial action looms. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told the Sunday Telegraph that ministers are looking at drawing up laws which would make industrial action illegal unless a certain number of staff are working.
Mr Shapps told the newspaper that the government hopes the unions “will wake up and smell the coffee” and suggested that strikes could put more people off rail travel. He also accused unions of going straight to industrial action rather than using it as a last resort, adding that railways were already on “financial life support” because of the pandemic.
