Law change urged as fears grow over industrial action

The CBI said firms should be allowed to recruit agency staff to cover for striking workers, and repeated its call that 40 per cent of union members balloted would have to support a walkout before it could go ahead.

The business leaders voiced concern that unofficial wildcat strikes were starting to break out, using social networks to evade the law, which it described as “particularly worrying”.

In a new report, Keeping The Wheels Turning: Modernising The Legal Framework of Industrial Relations, the CBI outlined a package of measures it said would modernise employment relations legislation and keep the economic recovery on track.

Industrial action across the public sector could increase as the Government takes steps to reduce the deficit, the CBI warned.

The report was published as thousands of London Underground workers went on strike, causing travel chaos in the capital, and follows warnings of co-ordinated industrial action by unions.

John Cridland, the CBI’s deputy director general, said: “The CBI believes the law needs updating to reflect the fact that 85 per cent of private sector employees are not members of a union.”