June’s rail and underground strikes are old news now but what about threatened strikes in other sectors in the not-so-distant future? After two-and-a-half years of pent-up frustration and uncertainty from the Covid pandemic – or six if you include the Brexit vote fallout – a period of discontent has certainly arrived in the UK. And to paraphrase the Beatles, “money (alone) can’t buy us contentment”. 

The last thing recruiters need is a raging tug-of-war over whether agency workers should be pulled into strike coverage”

Depending on the whims of Parliament, No 10 and any commitment to changing the laws governing the use of agency workers to cover strikers, recruiters might find themselves in the middle of the turbulence with little or no room to prudently navigate the situation. As we go to press, recruitment leaders and the REC had sent a letter to business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to ask the government to reconsider changing the law. This may be the point of time at which recruiters learn who our true friends and supportive collaborators in government really are. 
As the country bounces from pillar to post in the throes of a cost-of-living crisis, a war, Brexit machinations, a PM who is appearing increasingly Trumpian, a potential Scottish independence referendum and a skills shortage too, the last thing recruiters need is a raging tug-of-war over whether agency workers should be pulled into strike coverage.

DeeDee Doke, Editor