The High Court has this afternoon blocked the second day of strikes by nurses after Health Secretary Steve Barclay took legal action against the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to stop the walkouts. RCN members had planned a 48 hour strike between 8pm on 30 April and 8pm on 2 May, but today’s ruling was that the second day was unlawful as it was outside the union’s six-month mandate for industrial action.
The case is pretty curious in lots of ways. The RCN didn’t come into court and wasn’t represented because it opposes the legislation used as the grounds for Barclay’s legal challenge, the Trade Union Act 2016. In a letter to the court, the RCN said it ‘does not wish to give credence to what it fervently believes to be an unnecessary and misguided application brought by the Secretary of State’.
This court battle has been as much about sending a message to the public as it was about the legal arguments
Its general secretary Pat Cullen said after the ruling that ‘they have won their legal fight today.
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