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The minimum service levels Bill – why we should all be furious
The government’s planned legislation is contemptuous of parliamentary democracy and an affront to human rights, warn Prof KEITH EWING and Lord JOHN HENDY KC

THE Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill is extraordinary for the power it gives to the government to deny to workers what is universally regarded as a fundamental human right.   

The Bill will apply to strikes in six sectors: health services, fire and rescue services, education services, transport services, nuclear decommissioning, and border security.  

These are the six services identified in the Tories’ Trade Union Act 2016 which required strike mandates in these services to have the support of at least 40 per cent of those eligible to vote as well as a majority of those voting. 

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