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UK ministers have rejected calls to restore the right to strike to prison guards in England and Wales struggling to staff overcrowded jails, despite a union warning the decision would be seen as a betrayal.
The Prison Officers’ Association wrote to Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier this month, urging him to address a “demoralising” crisis in the criminal justice system by repealing legislation from 1994 that prevents most of its members in England and Wales taking industrial action. Police officers are subject to a similar ban on industrial action.
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, told the Financial Times that prison staff were “working in almost intolerable conditions”. Other emergency workers have the right to strike, as do prison officers in Scotland, he argued, and officers in England and Wales should be allowed “to exercise the same fundamental rights as everybody else”.
Mark Fairhurst, general secretary of the POA, said Labour in opposition had supported the repeal of this “pernicious” restriction, but said the party had “conveniently forgotten” to include the measure in its plan to boost workers’ rights — an overhaul of employment legislation that is to be set out in draft legislation within 100 days of taking office.
“Their decision on this will tell us all we need to know about this Labour government. They’re either for the working class or against us,” he told the TUC’s congress in Brighton last week.
But a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said there were “no plans to review this legislation”. The government had raised prison officers’ pay by 5 per cent, bringing starting salaries above £34,000, because it recognised the challenging conditions they worked in, and their “critical importance in keeping the public safe,” the spokesperson added.
The POA argues the pay rise will make little difference to a recruitment and retention crisis engulfing the prison service. If anything, the union warns it will exacerbate difficulties in privately run prisons, where starting salaries are now around £2,000 lower than in the public estate.
A report published last week by the chief inspector of prisons said staff shortages were a key factor undermining safety in jails. This made it difficult to support prisoners with addiction problems, help them with everyday needs, give them enough time out of their cells or run educational activities.
Officers were being bussed across the country to keep some jails running, the watchdog said, adding: “Even where there were enough officers, they were often very inexperienced and the number of staff who left within the first two years continued to be worryingly high.”
The POA wants the government to scale back previous plans to build new prisons and instead put more money into staffing and refurbishing existing jails, bolstering the probation service and providing more beds for patients in secure mental health units.
The union led some of its 34,000 members out on strike in 2018, despite the legal ban, and Fairhurst said the POA would not hesitate to back action by its members again.
“They threatened us with imprisonment,” he said of ministers’ response at the time. “Well, you can crack on with that. Who’s going to bang me up? All my members are out on strike outside.”