UK unions seek legal review of government’s strike-breaking laws

Transport workers in the RMT and Aslef unions have staged a series of strikes that have severely affected the UK rail network this summer. Photograph: Eleanor Barlow/PA

Trade unions have launched legal proceedings against the UK government, arguing that new laws allowing companies to use agency workers to break strikes are a “broad daylight” attack on the right to take industrial action.

Eleven trade unions, led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), have sought permission for a judicial review of new regulations making the change.