Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said that a potential change in legislation could allow companies to hire temporary workers to fill in for striking workers. This would repeal the ban created in 2003 that stopped this from being allowed, and is being widely reported as a measure that could be taken ahead of further planned strikes on the railways.

Section 7 of the 2003 Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations prevents employment businesses from supplying or introducing an agency worker to an employer in order to perform the duties of a striking worker. It also prevents them from providing agency staff to perform the roles of a non-striking worker who has been reassigned to cover for a striking worker. The Government believes this could be a way to cope with threats of strikes in the near future because it would only require secondary legislation - regulations that can be signed off by ministers.

An individual doing paid work in the UK is either a worker, an employee, or self-employed. The differences in status determine pay and benefits, the type of contract they receive for completing the work, as well as the employment rights they are entitled to.

Shapps said the measures have been discussed since the RMT union announced three days of strikes, after talks about pay, terms and conditions and redundancies fell through. He said:

"Further measures certainly would come in during this particular dispute, if it can't be resolved. We will be looking at the full suite of modernisation that's required. The country must not continue to be held to ransom."

Shapps' comments come just weeks after proposals to make strike action illegal unless a minimum number of train staff remained working.

Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed the proposals would make it "less safe to travel" and accused ministers of "sowing chaos and sowing division", saying "the government is acting like arsonists rather than firefighters”.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said:

"We already have the most restrictive anti-democratic trade union laws in Western Europe and if the government attempts to reduce our rights further, the RMT along with the rest of the trade union movement will mount the fiercest resistance possible."

General Secretary for the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF), Mick Whelan, described Shapps' idea as "impractical" and asked where the agency workers would come from. He said:

"You can't just ship in a load of signallers and train drivers. "If they are not working for the railway now they are either not medically fit, have been dismissed or don't want to do it anymore."

Paul Nowak, deputy general secretary of the TUC, described the move as “reckless”. He said:

“This government is desperate to distract from its numerous failings by picking a fight with unions. Allowing agency staff to replace striking workers would undermine the right to strike and be extremely reckless. Bringing in less qualified and experienced staff to deliver important services would create genuine safety risks for the public and for the workforce. Using agency workers to try and break strikes would put these workers in an appalling situation, worsen disputes and poison industrial relations. Some may not realise until it is too late that they are being asked to break a strike. Having repeatedly promised a high-wage economy, ministers now seem determined to reduce workers’ bargaining power and to make it harder for working people to win fair pay and conditions.”