SPOTLIGHT ON THE RIGHT TO STRIKE

The debate over giving prison officers back their ‘industrial muscle’ is heating up, reports Charley Allan

The ban on prison officers taking any form of industrial action has been raised many times in Parliament in recent years, often in the context of exploitative pay, terms and conditions. Back in December 2020, Labour’s Grahame Morris highlighted how “it is a criminal offence even to suggest that they should, for example, start working to rule” when attacking the then Tory government for rejecting the pay review body’s recommendation of a £3,000 rise for Band 3s, which he described as “an abuse of power”.

Conservative hereditary peer Earl Attlee made a similar point in March 2023, warning that “ministers need to be very careful to ensure that they are not abusing this restriction and underpaying and under-rewarding prison officers, and I think that they are underpaid.” Twelve months later, former Unite leader Lord Woodley also insisted: “The Government are, in my opinion, exploiting this unjustifiable restriction.” He added that “lifting the pension age to 68 is a classic example of this”.

But with 2024 marking 30 years since Section 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act made it a criminal offence to “induce” a prison officer to take industrial action, the POA has relaunched its campaign for the return of these basic industrial rights, targeting the new Labour government since the general election.

Having won unanimous support at the TUC in September for this campaign, the POA brought its demands directly to Parliament with a well-attended reception the following month, at which numerous MPs and peers, including new Prisons Minister and former cobbling magnate Lord Timpson, spoke directly to union NEC members and reps about why prison officers must have the right to strike.

BROKEN PROMISE

But while the reception itself was in full flow, less than 100 yards away in the Commons Chamber other MPs were debating the Employment Rights Bill, widely welcomed by unions as a significant step forward for workers’ rights. The new law promises to overturn much of the Tories’ recent anti-trade union legislation, including minimum service levels and most of the Trade Union Act 2016, but disgracefully this doesn’t include Section 127.

This omission is especially painful given that, before the 1997 Labour landslide, Tony Blair promised the POA in writing that his incoming government “will want to put this situation right and ensure, once again, that prison officers are treated in the same way and with the same working rights as other public servants”. But this pledge was soon broken, with then-Home Secretary Jack Straw insisting after the election that “industrial action can have no more place within the Prison Service than it can within a police service”. The betrayal still stings.

KEY AMENDMENTS

At the debate, former shadow chancellor and POA honorary life member John McDonnell made this same point, telling MPs that “prison officers have been denied the right to strike since 1994, and even Tony Blair said that he would restore that. I want to see that in this bill, and I shall table an amendment accordingly”. He tabled his amendment (actually three amendments, NC1, NC2 and NC3, to ensure that at least one is ruled in scope of the bill) immediately afterwards, and this will be debated at the next stage in December or January.

Former shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon praised the bill but added he “would also welcome improvements” to it. “For example, it is 30 years since the Tories took away prison officers’ right to strike, and I would like to see that returned.” His Labour comrade, Mary Kelly Foy, said: “There are three prisons in my constituency and I know about the hardships that prison officers face, which are pushing many of them to the brink.” And she went on: “I hope that the Minister will be able to meet representatives from the POA and work to repeal Section 127 so that its members can have real equality with their fellow trade unionists.”

POWERFUL SPEECH

New Scottish Labour MP Brian Leishman devoted his whole speech to the issue, and it’s well worth quoting in full: “Under Section 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, prison officers were banned from taking industrial action. Correctly, the Scottish Parliament restored the right to strike in 2015, but today prison officers in the rest of the United Kingdom find themselves in a poorer position than their Scottish counterparts, in that they are not allowed to withdraw their labour.

“Section 127 has also limited trade unions’ ability to protect prison officers from wage stagnation and attacks on their terms and conditions, which has led to a recruitment and retention crisis and, naturally, to low morale. As in professions such as nursing, the police, the fire brigades and teaching, it is often the camaraderie of colleagues on the shift that keeps things going in a job that provides a vital public service that has been disgracefully underfunded.

“The state of our prisons is well documented. Ruthless Conservative austerity has hammered the service. More than a quarter of prison officers have left since 2012. Prison officers were not exempted from the Conservative government’s raising of the public sector pension age to 68, which, given the physical nature of the day-to-day work, is obviously unfair, unrealistic and, of course, incredibly dangerous. Since that wealth of experience has left, violence directed at both officers and prisoners has escalated.

“The prison system is another mess that this government has inherited and must now sort. Prison officers should have the right to retire at 60 or after 30 years’ service; it is just the right thing to do for employees. No-one should feel like a disposable commodity that is there to be exploited and then discarded when every last ounce of work has been wrung out of them. It is also right that prison officers in the rest of the UK achieve parity with Scottish prison officers. They too should have a fundamental right to withdraw their labour.”

BUILDING SUPPORT

The campaign is building wider support, too. Grahame Morris MP tabled Early Day Motion 228 on the “Ban on prison officer industrial action”, which has so far gathered signatures from dozens of fellow MPs, including McDonnell, Burgon, Kelly Foy and Leishman. The EDM highlights how the “lack of industrial muscle leaves prison officers unfairly and dangerously at the mercy of prison service management and without leverage to challenge government policy with respect to pay, terms and conditions” and “expresses solidarity with the POA union, which has campaigned tirelessly over three decades for the return of these basic industrial rights”.

For far too long, successive governments have forced prison officers to suffer the worst of all worlds: poor pay, terms and conditions, but no way to improve them. Any sane government, especially facing the current prison crisis, would want to empower officers, not undermine them. Just what are they so afraid of? l

* Please ask your MP to sign EDM 228 and to support amendments NC1, NC2 and NC3 to the Employment Rights Bill – see www.theyworkforyou.com for contact details