Teaching Unions Vote for Strike Action

With PCS, the largest civil service union, set to close its ballot for strike action tomorrow, the ATL & the NUT have both announced ballot results in favour of strike action today, raising the possibility of coordinated strike action taking place on 30 June.

As well as the disruption to many schools in England & Wales if they are hit by strikes, with a potential 250,000 civil servants posed to strike too, Business Secretary, Vince Cable will no doubt be tested on his recent warning to the trade unions if a resolution is not found.

Unions reacted angrily to the Business Secretary’s warnings that the laws on industrial action might be tightened further, so if an agreement on public sector pensions is not found in the next couple of weeks, the mettle on both sides of this debate is likely to be tested soon, with new employment laws a real possibility…

For small employers that don’t have any trade unions to recognise, this may all appear an irrelevance. One potential side-effect that will certainly be relevant though is if schools do close – your employees may be seeking time-off to care for dependants. If your employees have children attending a school that does close, whether any disruption would be “unexpected” would certainly be open to debate, so employers are advised to remind their staff of their policies well in advance of 30 June.

Filed under: Flexible Working, General News, Laws & Regulations by Employment Law Clinic           Post created on: June 14th, 2011