Three decades of disgrace
This year marks 30 years since prison officers in the UK were banned from taking any form of industrial action under Section 127 of the Criminal Justice Act 1994 – although the Scottish Government formally restored the right to strike in 2015 and the sky hasn’t fallen in.
It’s widely acknowledged, even across Parliament, that successive governments have unfairly used this draconian restriction to exploit hard-working brave prison officers, who have no effective way to fight back against their poor pay, punishing terms of service, and workplace conditions that should be completely unacceptable in a civilised society.
Pictures from Parliamentary event at the House of Commons
POA motion to TUC 2024
Motion 3: Repeal Section 127 Criminal Justice Public Order Act 1994
Congress welcomes the Labour government’s New Deal for workers and is committed to ensuring that part of the manifesto is delivered in a timely manner. Congress welcomes the commitment from a Labour government to repeal the Trade Union Act 2016 and the Minimum Service Levels legislation, however Congress commits the General Council to campaign to also repeal Section 127 of the Criminal Justice Public Order Act 1994 which restricts prison officer grades in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from taking any form of industrial action and making it a criminal offence to do so or to induce that action.
Congress notes the right to strike is a fundamental human right under international law and that the POA have now been restricted for 30 years and finds itself under a permanent injunction and contempt of court. This pernicious piece of legislation should and must be repealed given that there are no adequate compensatory mechanisms in place for resolving local and national disputes or effective mechanisms for resolving pay. Further, Congress welcomes the fact that the ECHR has accepted an application from the POA on these restrictions and a period of negotiations should take place as a first step between government and union as part of that application.
Representing over 30,000 Prison, Correctional and Secure Psychiatric Workers, the POA is the largest UK Union in this sector, able to trace its roots back more than 100 years.