Unions facing threat of strike-law reform if pensions protest goes on

Conservative Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said legislation was kept “under review” and indicated that staging a mass walk-out at a time of economic turmoil would lead to a clampdown on trade unions, while Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander admitted the government was “looking at those things”.

However, the stark warnings from the UK ministers sparked an angry reaction from SNP finance secretary John Swinney, who attacked the Tory-Lib Dem coalition over plans to impose an increase of more than 3 per cent in the contributions public sector workers have to make to their pensions.

Mr Swinney yesterday said the pensions proposals was “a short-term cash grab” and that Scotland’s public-sector workers were “clearly concerned” about the move.

Mr Maude said legislation was kept under review, and that there was a “powerful case” to government calling for a minimum 40 per cent turnout on strike ballots before they were deemed legal.

He said: “We keep it under review, but the CBI have made a powerful case for change, others have as well.

“I have made this point to the unions, that if they do call out their members on strike at a time of huge fragility for our economy, where actually a widespread disruptive strike would cause immense damage to our economy, with a lot of people losing their jobs – people who don’t have access to pensions anywhere near as good as what public-sector workers will still have at the end of this – then actually the case for reform of the ballot laws, I think, will become very pressing.”

Mr Alexander, when asked about possible new strike laws, said: “Of course we have to look at those things [strike laws], and we are looking at those things.”

Mr Swinney said a “well-balanced” report from former UK Labour minister Lord Hutton had been “contaminated” by the Tory-led government wanting to increase public sector pension contributions.

Mr Swinney said: “It’s a short-term cash grab that’s clearly concerned public-sector workers.”

But the SNP minister insisted he would cross the picket line outside the Scottish Parliament on 30 November – the day of the strike – saying that “industrial action will disrupt services and I’d rather it was not happening”.

Labour MSP Richard Baker, who backs the strike, accused Mr Swinney and the SNP of wanting to “play political games and score political points” by crossing the picket line to attend a debate on pensions that day.

Meanwhile, a new survey revealed that than only one in ten people believed public-sector pensions were “gold-plated” and that people were more likely to trust trade unions than the government on the issue.

A poll of more than 1,000 adults commissioned by Unite showed unions were three times more trusted than the government for providing accurate information on the affordability of public-sector pensions.

Only 8 per cent of those questioned said they would regard a pension of £6,000 a year – the average for the public sector – as gold-plated.