THE battle to oppose the UK Government’s controversial trade union reforms is the Scottish Government’s “poll tax moment,” a union chief has insisted.

Gary Smith, acting secretary of GMB Scotland, argued that what David Cameron and his Ministers were intending to do through their proposed legislation was to “crush dissent” and he made clear trade unions were again calling on the SNP administration and the local authorities in Scotland not to implement the changes.

“This is their poll tax moment; they are in power and should be doing something. If the Scottish Government and the local authorities unite with the trade unions, then there is no way the Tory Government can impose the changes. This really is this generation’s poll tax moment,” he added.

The Conservative Government wants to use new measures in its Trade Union Reform Bill to "modernise" union activity but the trade unions believe they represent a fundamental attack on workers' rights to organise themselves and to undertake industrial action.

The legislation creates minimum turnout thresholds for strike ballots and requires at least 40 per cent of eligible union members to back a public sector strike.

Its contents are set to be debated at the Labour conference today with several unions strongly denouncing them.

Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, has come out forcefully against the proposed reforms but has stressed how the power over them is still reserved to Westminster. She has now called for it to be devolved so the the reforms can be halted north of the border.

She has written to Jeremy Corbyn, asking him to ensure Labour supports an SNP move to amend the Scotland Bill to enable the power over employment rights is devolved to Holyrood.

But Labour has denounced this move as a “crude attempt to play politics with trade union rights” given that the Tories have a Commons majority and would not allow the amendment to pass. It also insisted that the Holyrood Government already has the power to block the worst provisions of the Bill.