Recommendation 14

We agree that there is potential for minimum service requirements to impact more severely on certain protected groups, most obviously women in respect of nursing. However, before such requirements are specified it is hard to establish whether they would meet the Article 14 requirement for an objective and reasonable justification. Nevertheless, discrimination in breach of Article 14 would be less likely if, as previously recommended, the categories of service to which minimum service levels could apply were narrowed and defined more clearly, and if minimum service levels were, if possible, reached by a process of negotiation or independent arbitration rather than imposed by regulation. (Paragraph 88) 36 Legislative Scrutiny: Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill 2022–2023