Trade Union Activities; 'trade union activities' in the unfair dismissal context; does not support a universal exclusion of strikes from the ordinary meaning of the phrase. [Summary checked against a practitioner text, not the judgment.]
Cited by
References found in the judgments’ text, with the number of paragraphs in which each case is mentioned. Not a classification: how a case was treated is recorded under Later history.
Trade Unions; s.145B; direct offers to employees bypassing the union are unlawful if the collective bargaining process is not exhausted.
Cites
References found in the judgments’ text, with the number of paragraphs in which each case is mentioned. Not a classification: how a case was treated is recorded under Later history.
Industrial action; detriment short of dismissal; s.146 TULRCA; Article 11. The Supreme Court (Lady Simler, the other Justices agreeing) held that s.146 does not protect a worker from detriment short of dismissal for taking part in lawful strike action: trade union activities 'at an appropriate time' exclude industrial action in working hours, consistently with the limited protection against dismissal for strikers in ss.237 to 238A [44]-[47]. That absence of protection is incompatible with Article 11 where the sanction is intended to deter or penalise participation in a lawful strike [91], [117]. A compliant reading under s.3 HRA was not possible, since it would require the court to make policy choices [91]-[108]. The court made a declaration of incompatibility under s.4, holding the Court of Appeal wrong to refuse one; whether and how to legislate is for Parliament [120]-[121].
Cites
References found in the judgments’ text, with the number of paragraphs in which each case is mentioned. Not a classification: how a case was treated is recorded under Later history.
Industrial action; blacklisting; Blacklisting Regulations 2010. The Court of Appeal (Bean LJ, the other members agreeing) dismissed the employer's appeal [53]. Taking part in a strike is among the 'activities of trade unions' protected by the Regulations: the employer's case that it was free to blacklist anyone who had taken part in industrial action ran against the consultation and Departmental documents and would have left the Regulations failing to meet the mischief at which they were aimed [49]. The action must be official, in the sense of organised or endorsed by the union under its rules, but there is no basis for importing a requirement of conformity with the balloting requirements of Part V of the 1992 Act [50]. In any event the employer's attempt to relitigate the lawfulness of the ballot, having failed to obtain an injunction in the High Court, was an abuse of process [51].
“There can be no real dispute that the natural meaning of the phrase "activities of an independent trade union" includes organising industrial action … Mercer, so far from requiring us to depart from the natural meaning of the words when construing the Blacklisting Regulations, strongly supports adherence to the natural meaning.”Bean LJ, at [43]
Cites
References found in the judgments’ text, with the number of paragraphs in which each case is mentioned. Not a classification: how a case was treated is recorded under Later history.