The country's biggest employers' group has called for changes to strike ballots and employment law amid warnings of increased industrial action in the coming months in reaction to the Government's spending cuts.
The CBI said firms should be allowed to recruit agency staff to cover for striking workers, and repeated its call that 40% of union members balloted would have to support a walkout before it could go ahead.
The business leaders voiced concern that unofficial wildcat strikes were starting to break out, using social networks to evade the law, which it described as "particularly worrying."
In a new report, Keeping The Wheels Turning: Modernising The Legal Framework of Industrial Relations, the CBI outlined a package of measures it said would modernise employment relations legislation and keep the economic recovery on track.
Industrial action across the public sector could increase as the Government takes steps to reduce the deficit, the CBI warned.
The report was published as thousands of London Underground workers went on strike, causing travel chaos in the capital, and follows warnings of co-ordinated industrial action by unions.
John Cridland, the CBI's Deputy Director-General, said: "The CBI believes the law needs updating to reflect the fact that 85% of private sector employees are not members of a union, and that most employers now negotiate directly with staff or their representatives to bring about changes in the workplace.
"As strike action has become increasingly rare, public attitudes towards unwelcome disruption have hardened and there is now a legitimate expectation that services will continue even if there are industrial disputes.
"When a legitimate strike threatens to disrupt the services on which the public depends, it is only right that it should require a higher bar of support. That is why no strike should go ahead unless 40% of the balloted workforce has voted for it.
Read More
"While workers have the legal right to withdraw their labour, employers have a responsibility to run their businesses. The public increasingly expects it to be business as usual, even during a strike, so firms must be allowed to hire temps directly from an agency to provide emergency cover for striking workers."
