A TRADE-UNION lawyer who was “unlawfully” arrested on a picket line earlier this year has accused the London’s Metropolitan Police of “criminalising strike action.” 

Franck Magennis, former head of legal for the United Voices of the World (UVW) union and a barrister with Garden Court Chambers, was handcuffed and detained on January 13 outside St George’s, University of London, where security guards had been staging a strike over sick pay. 

Mr Magennis, who is suing the force over the incident, said that his arrest at the medical school in Tooting, south London, had intimidated workers and prevented them from exercising their legal right to strike.

On Monday, the UVW announced that it has launched a fundraiser to cover legal costs in the event that Mr Magennis loses the case.

The barrister said: “My unlawful arrest is another episode of the Metropolitan Police brazenly attacking trade unionists. 

“This case is now more important than ever, as the police have clearly been emboldened by the anti-worker rhetoric of Boris Johnson’s Conservative government and think they can act with impunity, putting workers’ rights and civil rights at risk.”

Police had arrived at the picket amid claims that the strikers were causing an illegal nuisance on NHS property and handed them a letter instructing them to leave. 

When Mr Magennis asked officers for the legal basis of the order, he was handcuffed, detained and then released five minutes later on condition that he left the scene. The picket subsequently broke up.

Mr Magennis’s lawyer Susie Labinjoh, of Hodge Jones & Allen solicitors, said that the arrest “clearly raises important constitutional issues.”

“We will be looking at all legal avenues to ensure that police are held to account, that trade-union members are not criminalised for going on strike and that people are not arbitrarily arrested.”

Visit the fundraiser here