Jonathan Wadsworth, a director of healthcare and social care recruiter Charles Hunter Associates, tells Recruiterthat tomorrow’s strike will have minimal impact on the business.

“There has not been any call for extra staff because we are not allowed to bring in temporary staff to backfill positions in a strike,” he says.

As Ben Thornber, a partner at law firm Martineau, explains, the Conduct Regulations prohibit employers from replacing striking staff with agency workers. 

Thornber tells Recruiter: “I don’t think they will touch it with a bargepole, as they could be up for a civil penalty of £5,000.”   

Thornber says employers are left with the following options:

• recruit people themselves
• reorganise staff internally
• get genuine volunteers from members of the public

Multi-sector recruiter Castle Employment managing director Suzanne Burnett confirms that the company will see little effect on the bottom line as a result of the strikes.

She told Recruiter: “We haven’t seen a direct impact on these [contracts] as a result of tomorrow, it’s more just a bad feeling.”