Industrial Action and your business - Preparing for a Workers Strike

Industrial Action can happen for many reasons, and can potentially have very far reaching repercussions. In fact, that's the whole point, to reduce productivity in the work place in response to grievances from employees.

They've been in the news a lot recently; The London Underground have gone on strike and will go on strike numerous times, bin men in some counties went on strike during the Christmas period, and more and more strikes are coming as cuts are made and jobs are threatened.

Strikes can have much further consequences than just halting one business's productivity. The strikes on the London Underground, for example, brought much of the capital to its knees, preventing thousands upon thousands of commuters from getting to work and costing businesses city-wide.

So what you can do? The actions of another company aren't under your control, so preventing the strike action isn't an option, and there's virtually no chance of being able to claim for any damages after. So the best way to deal with issues such as these is to prepare and have a form of Business Continuity Plan in effect. A Business Continuity Plan can involve many things; Having a back-up telephone answering service in case of issues or an emergency, outsourcing parts of your business if your staff can't make it to work because of bad weather, and a whole variety of other things.

One of the most occurring problems in the work place in the winter months is staff being unable to get to work. This can be particularly troublesome if you rely on secretaries and receptionists heavily, and can result in lost business. One of the best ways to tackle this problem would be to have a backup telephone answering service, that you can simply transfer your calls to in the event of staff being unable to get to work.

It's always important to have a Business Continuity Plan, so ensure you have some idea how your business can tackle problems before it's too late.

Download our Business Continuity Planning PDF.