Strikes and the National Health Service: Some legal and ethical issues (original) (raw)

The justification for strike action in healthcare: A systematic critical interpretive synthesis

Nursing Ethics

Strike action in healthcare has been a common global phenomenon. As such action is designed to be disruptive, it creates substantial ethical tension, the most cited of which relates to patient harm, that is, a strike may not only disrupt an employer, but it could also have serious implications for the delivery of care. This article systematically reviewed the literature on strike action in healthcare with the aim of providing an overview of the major justifications for strike action, identifying relative strengths and shortcomings of this literature and providing direction for future discussions, and theoretical and empirical research. Three major themes emerged related to (1) the relationship between healthcare workers, patients and society; (2) the consequences of strike action; and (3) the conduct of strike action. Those who argue against strike action generally cite the harms of such action, particularly as it relates to patients. Many also argue that healthcare workers, because...

A last resort? A scoping review of patient and healthcare worker attitudes toward strike action

Nursing Inquiry

While strike action has been common since the industrial revolution, it often invokes a passionate and polarising response, from the strikers themselves, from employers, governments and the general public. Support or lack thereof from health workers and the general public is an important consideration in the justification of strike action. This systematic review sought to examine the impact of strike action on patient and clinician attitudes, specifically to explore (1) patient and health worker support for strike action and (2) the predictors for supporting strike action and the reasons given for engaging in strike action. A systematic scoping review was employed to identify all relevant literature, followed by a textual narrative synthesis. A total of 34 studies met inclusion criteria. Support for strike action was largely context‐dependent. A range of factors impact support for strike action; broader cultural and structural factors, such as unionisation and general acceptance of ...

The Right to Strike in Nova Scotia Series Health Care Strikes : “ Pulling the Red Cord ”

2007

Number 2 • November 2007 "The Right to Strike in Nova Scotia Health Care: Issues and Observations" is a 3-part series that examines the right to strike for public sector workers in the context of Government of Nova Scotia's stated intention to introduce legislation to remove that right from health care and community service workers. In our first article "A Tale of Two Provinces" 1 we compared Nova Scotia (where health care strikes are legal) and Alberta (where they have been outlawed since 1983). Over the twenty-four years there has been more than fifteen times as much strike activity in Alberta acute-care as in Nova Scotia (proportional to their populations). Study of several other provinces and sectors also underlines the folly of hoping to prevent strikes by banning them. The third article, to come, will deal with the efficacy of arbitration, especially in dealing with one of the most challenging problems in health care today-the recruitment and retention of key professional staff. The present article, the second in the series, addresses beliefs by strike-ban proponents about the level of disruption to health care caused by labour disputes, particularly in light of their assertions that the system is stretched too tightly to tolerate strikes.

The right to strike A trade union view

1991

This short book, written for and published by the Institute of Employment Rights, discusses the nature of an impact of the anti-strike laws as they existed in 1991. Unfortunately, although the book is over 20 years' old, much of this law still exists, and this is despite 13 years of a Labour government. Moreover, further controls were introduced by the Conservative’s Trade Union Act 2016, particularly through the imposition of special voting majorities In secret ballots . The main purpose of the book is to argue that trade union members have nothing to gain from repeal of the anti-union law being in the form of the re-widening of the statutory immunites. Rather, the system of immunites should be totally replaced by a system of positive rights to strike and engage in effective picketing.