Essential truths
HOW can the government limit the rise in public-sector pay without running the risk of provoking damaging strikes in essential services? It took the Tories 17 years to come up with their final answer to that conundrum. Strikes which would have “disproportionate and excessive effects” should be made unlawful, the government said in a consultative paper published in November. This was a rare instance of the Tories aping European labour market rules, as something similar applies in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. Labour called it a “lawyers' charter”, but the party is now struggling to find something to put in its place.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Essential truths”
From the March 8th 1997 edition
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