Explainer-in-brief: NHS walkouts put strike laws front and centre
Over the summer, Britain saw strikes from train staff, lawyers, postal workers and a handful more professions.
But the NHS could soon face strikes over the winter, with Unison, the trade union which represents nurses, ambulance staff and hospital cleaners, set to ballot its 400,000 members later this month.
It will likely bring to a head a brewing row over allowing agency workers to fill in for striking staff. While they would be unlikely to be used for specialist staff such as nurses, hospitals could bring them in place of cleaners on the picket line.
The government has already brought in legislation to stop transport staff from holding the trains and buses hostage to the unions. These laws, known as minimum service rules, have been the subject of fierce criticism from the unions. Other plans including forcing trade bodies to put any pay offers to a vote of its members.