Employment and Trade Union Law
I have covered the Mercer case twice on this site (here and here). The facts are that a union member helped organise a strike that was supported by the union. Later the employer imposed a disciplinary warning on the employee for that act. The union member complained this was a breach of section 146 of … Continue reading Strikes, disciplinary warnings, and freedom of association.
A couple of months I highlighted covered Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's position that an employer may well act appropriately if they issue a worker a warning if that worker takes part in a campaign of strike action called by a trade union. Thankfully, BEIS' argument - despite the fact that BEIS is … Continue reading Scope of Trade Union Detriment Law Expands
Last week the Employment Appeal Tribunal decided the Unison backed case of Mercer v Alternative Future Group Ltd. In this case a union rep had helped to organise and took part in a strike for the Unison union, and was disciplined by her employer for having done so, being given a disciplinary warning. The union … Continue reading BEIS argues disciplining striking workers may be legitimate and lawful.
At the beginning of this year I suggested that there had been signs of a ratcheting up of interference of union activities commenting that there "are worrying signs that should a copper turn up on a picket line their agenda should not be automatically assumed to be as an independent and fair-minded enforcer of the … Continue reading Lockdown and the right to picket
In 2002 the European Court of Human Rights decided the case of Wilson v UK and found that UK trade union legislation was contrary the Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights - in particular, at paragraph 48 of Wilson the ECHR found that by permitting employers to use financial incentives to induce … Continue reading Court of Appeal Restricts Effectiveness of Trade Union Negotiation
From Garden Court Chambers: In an unusual step, the UK government has joined a test case being heard at the Court of Appeal this week as an intervener. Judgment is being made on whether the blacklisting of engineer Dave Smith breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Carillion (JM) Ltd admitted that staff supplied information to the … Continue reading Blacklisting and Human Rights
Employment Writes 