The Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill (IPAB) purports to protect trade unions from surveillance, but it does not. In fact, if the security services want to surveil trade unions, they can.
Under the European Convention on Human Rights, everyone has a right to form and join trade unions. Everyone also has a right to respect for the privacy of their correspondence. Trade union membership status is also supposed to have special protections under UK data protection law. The IPAB ignores these additional protections.
RSI calls on the government to redraft Clause 5 of the IPAB and amend Sections 20, 21, 60A, 61A, 87, 94, 102, 103, 104, 106, 158, 204 and 205 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 to leave no room for doubt that the intelligence services cannot surveil trade unions' members or activities.
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