Downing Street Says

» Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Strikes

Put that Vince Cable had said last week that there were compelling reasons to change the strike laws, the PMS said that the position on strike laws had not changed; we would always keep it under review. The PMS added that what Vince Cable had said last week was that the level of public sector strikes in this country remained low, and therefore there was not a compelling case for changing the law at the current time, but it was something we would keep under review.

Put that with big strikes potentially on the horizon, what would constitute a compelling case, the PMS replied that we would keep it under review. We wanted to have a constructive dialogue with the unions. The PMS said that the issue we were currently talking about was pension reform; we thought it was important to reform public sector pensions and we wanted to do that in a way that was fair to public sector workers, but also fair for the taxpayer. We wanted to ensure we continued to attract the good teachers that people wanted to see in schools, but there was no denying the fact that we needed to reform public sector pensions.

Asked if the Government was sitting on its hands’, the PMS replied that we were actively engaging with the unions and we were keeping the issue of strike laws under review.

Put that the Government would not be able to change the strike laws until after the strike had occurred, the PMS said that the number of public sector strikes was low by international standards and we did not see a compelling case at the present time for changing the strike laws but we would continue to look at it.

Asked if the Prime Minister would accept that we had some of the toughest labour laws of any nation, the PMS said that what was important was to have the right laws in place. It was the Government’s judgement at the moment that the right laws were in place but we would keep that under review.

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» Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Strikes

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