26.05.15
Government launches assault on the public sector employee
One thing has become clear in the few weeks since the general election returned a shock Conservative majority: this new single-party government is determined to assault the rights of workers, especially those in the public sector.
The Queen’s Speech is set to be full of policies that will be to the detriment of public sector workers.
First there’s the new rules on public sector strikes announced by Sajid Javid.
Under the Tory plan, public sector strikes will not be able to go ahead unless they are supported by 40% of workers who are eligible to vote – for the first time making a union vote different to every other kind of ballot held in the UK, where a simple majority is all that is required for local and parliamentary elections, referenda, company shareholder meetings and police and crime commissioner elections.
It is worth pointing out that if the same strict standard was applied to Parliamentary elections than the Conservatives would have no mandate to govern, having only won 37% of the vote on 66% turnout.
But not content with simply curbing workers’ rights to campaign for fairer treatment, the government has now also promised to include legislation to cap redundancy payouts for public sector workers in the Queen’s Speech.
It’s clearly going to be a rough five years for the average public sector employee, though you could be forgiven for wondering already what else they could do to make life more difficult for them.
Well here’s one promise, they’ll find something.
(Picture by: Tim Goode)