Experts believe that the government allowing a lift on the ban where agency workers fill in during strikes is counter-productive, impractical and puts workers at risk.
This is according to the TUC and REC, with both calling on the government to abandon its ‘unworkable’ plan.
Neil Carberry, Chief Executive of the REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation), said, “The government’s proposal will not work. Agency staff have a choice of roles and are highly unlikely to choose to cross picket lines. Agencies want the ban to stay to avoid them being pressured by clients into supplying staff into hostile and potentially dangerous situations. Earlier this year, we saw the effect on agencies who inadvertently got drawn into the P&O dispute. That offers a salutary lesson.
“In all disputes, our aim should be to resolve conflict, not to prolong it. Inserting a different firm’s workers into the middle of a dispute can only ever inflame tensions.”