Government plans to change the law to allow firms to hire agency workers to replace striking staff have today come under fire – including from representatives of recruitment agencies.
With ministers braced for a “summer of discontent” as groups including nurses, teachers and mail workers mull industrial action, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is tabling legislation which will remove a 1973 law banning the use of agency workers as strike-breakers. Plans to put it before parliament today foundered after the House rose earlier than expected, and Mr Kwarteng will have to wait for Monday to start the process, which requires a vote by MPs.
