Recommendation 10

It is clear from the Government’s own Transport Strikes Bill that an alternative mechanism for establishing minimum service levels, involving negotiation between trade unions and employers and independent arbitration, is available. Such an approach would be more consistent with the standards of the ILO and amount to a more proportionate interference with Article 11 rights. In our view, the Bill would be more likely to be compatible with Article 11 if it included a mechanism for establishing minimum service levels that involved genuine collective negotiation between employers and unions and the independent resolution of conflicts. We have included a draft amendment that would achieve this aim in the Annex to this report (Amendment 3).