Government wins High Court bid to ban prison officer strikes

The Government has won its High Court bid to obtain a permanent ban on industrial action by prison officers.

The application from the Ministry of Justice was in response to a move in February by the Professional Trades Union for Prison, Correctional and Secure Psychiatric Workers (POA) to call on its members to take action short of a strike.

An interim injunction was granted requiring the POA to withdraw a circular telling members to refuse to undertake certain voluntary tasks.

Daniel Stilitz QC said earlier this month that the case was brought to make sure the union "does not seek to breach the law again".

He said that given the importance of maintaining discipline and security within the prisons service, Parliament had enacted a prohibition on inducing prison officers to strike under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

Despite this, the union had recently called or threatened to call industrial action a number of times, Mr Stilitz told the court.

"Any inducement which leads prison officers to cease to provide services which they otherwise would have done is unlawful," he said.

Mr Stilitz argued the union had shown a continued willingness to call for industrial action despite Parliament having "clearly and deliberately" prohibited it from doing so, accusing the POA of using "inflammatory rhetoric".

He said: "The Secretary of State is concerned that, unless the position is determined definitively by the court, there will be renewed calls for unlawful industrial action in the future.

"It is therefore critical to safeguarding the proper and safe functioning of the prison service that the scope of the statutory prohibition is confirmed."

John Hendy QC, representing the POA, said each of the activities referred to were voluntary in nature and there was no evidence that any of its 35,000 members had been asked to disobey any lawful instruction.

Mr Hendy said efforts were made to make sure members fully complied with the February order and the court was being asked to consider the lawfulness of a circular which was no longer in existence and was never implemented.

Announcing his judgement, Mr Justice Jay said the Ministry of Justice was entitled to a final injunction.

He said: "The POA has lost not just on the facts – the wording of the circular, and the finding that the circular was likely to generate a risk to the safety of prisoners and staff – but also on the important point of principle."

(c) Sky News 2017: Government wins High Court bid to ban prison officer strikes