THE Tory government’s latest anti-worker legislation must be met with a mass campaign of non-compliance if it becomes law, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) insisted today.

In a letter to fellow union leaders, FBU general secretary Matt Wrack described the proposed Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill as “one of the worst assaults on the rights of working people in postwar Britain.”

The legislation, which is close to completing its passage through Parliament, would empower bosses and even ministers to sack workers who refuse to cross picket lines and provide an as yet undefined minimum service level during walkouts across six key sectors.

Amid the biggest strike wave to sweep Britain since the 1980s, ministers have also allowed employers to hire temporary agency workers to break industrial action. 

Mr Wrack stressed that, in response, the labour movement has “no choice but to build mass opposition, including developing a strategy of non-compliance and non-co-operation.”

He called for a conference to held in the autumn to thrash out the strategies and practicalities of such a campaign.

The appeal followed transport union RMT backing calls at its annual conference last week for a national demonstration against the anti-strikes Bill in October.

Mr Wrack wrote: “Our movement must prepare for the realities of the Bill becoming law.

“This is one of the worst assaults on the rights of working people in postwar Britain, enacted by a government of the rich, for the rich.

“We have no choice but to build mass opposition to it, including developing a strategy of non-compliance and non-co-operation to make it unworkable.”

He cited pledges by devolved SNP ministers in Scotland and Labour ministers in Wales that they would not issue a single “work notice” in any circumstance as a “sign of what could be achieved if we build mass opposition.

“We must pile pressure on all employers, devolved administrations, local authorities and other employers to do the same,” the FBU leader said. 

“This campaign cannot be won by any union acting alone — we must act together to build a movement to defy and defeat this law.

“With a national demonstration and a mass movement of non-compliance, we can build an alliance that can defeat this law in the streets and in the workplace.”