The Trade Union Act

What is it?

The government has introduced fundamental reforms to modernise trade union law. According to the Department for Business Innovation & Skills, the reforms in the Trade Union Act will:

• Ensure strike action only takes place if based on clear and representative mandates, and if it meets new thresholds
• Improve transparency and oversight of trade unions
• Require reasonable notice of strike action, giving employers greater chance to prepare and put contingency plans in place

Under current legislation, strikes triggered by a small minority of a unionized workforce can lead to a huge amount of disruption for businesses and their employees. The Act, while acknowledging the important and constructive role trade unions play in a modern workplace, aims to remove or mitigate this disruption.

What does it change?

Thresholds:

The Act requires minimum thresholds to validify strike action:

• At least 50% of trade union members entitled to vote must do so
• In “important public services”, at least 40% of eligible voters must be in favour
  • Though this does not apply to “ancillary workers”

Unions also need to include more detailed information on ballot papers, including:

• The issues that led to dispute stated in detail on each ballot paper
• The specific industrial action proposed
• An indication of the expected time period for strike action

E-balloting will be considered by the government ahead of strikes.
The government claims that the reforms are aimed at encouraging the resolution of workplace disputes without the need for industrial action, and to ensure that, where the latter is used, it is as a last resort with clear and ongoing support from trade union members.

Time scales:

The length of time a strike mandate is valid is now 6 months, beginning from the date of the ballot, though it can be increased to 9 if the union and employer agree. After this period, any strike action will be deemed unlawful and treated as such (unless another successful strike mandate is voted in). This differs from the current system, where there must be some industrial action within a 4 to 8 week period for the mandate to remain valid.

The notice period for industrial action has been doubled to 14 days.

Government hopes the imposition of a time limit for validity will “ensure strikes cannot be called on the basis on ballots conducted years before”, whilst the extension of the notice period is aimed at giving employers a reasonable chance to prepare.