Trade unions and trade union recognition
This week's case roundup, covering unfair dismissal and redundancy procedures laid down in collective agreements.
An employment tribunal erred in ruling that employees who protested to their employer, by way of petition, against new terms and conditions of employment collectively agreed between the employer and the recognised trade union had not accepted those terms, holds the EAT in London General Transport Services Ltd v Henry and others.
A dispute in relation to an employer's failure to agree with an unidentified future employer of some of its employees that both they and others subsequently employed by the new employer should be guaranteed their existing terms and conditions of employment was not a "trade dispute", holds the Court of Appeal in University College London Hospital NHS Trust v Unison.
In Christian Salvesen Food Services Ltd v Ali and others, the Court of Appeal considers an "annualised hours" contract, deriving from a collective agreement, under which employees were paid a standard wage for a notional 40-hour week, but overtime became payable only after 1,824 hours had been worked in a 12-month period.
A trade union is not required to restrict its call for industrial action to those of its members who were members at the date of the ballot and who were given an opportunity to vote in it, holds the Court of Appeal in London Underground Ltd v National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.
In Ali and others v Christian Salvesen Food Services plc the EAT holds that a contract of employment, which provided that overtime payments would be made only when the employee had worked more than the annualised hours total of 1,824 hours in the working year, contained an implied term entitling the employee, whose employment terminated several months before the end of the working year, to overtime payments in certain circumstances.
In London Ambulance Service v Charlton and others [1992] IRLR 510 EAT, the EAT held that the Industrial Tribunal had not erred in law in holding that the respondent union officials had met the requirements for paid time off under the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act, section 27(1)(a) in respect of their attendance at a meeting of a committee set up by the union to coordinate the activities of its district committees within the London Ambulance Service.
In Union Traffic Ltd v Transport and General Workers' Union and others, the Court of Appeal holds that, in certain circumstances, the mere presence of pickets can constitute an inducement of those seeking to cross the picket line to break their contracts of employment and so be unlawful.
Workers who are on strike, or who, by way of industrial action, refuse to carry out their duties, are not entitled to be paid unless the employer accepts such work as is performed during industrial action as complete performance of the worker's duties. So holds the House of Lords in Miles v Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, rejecting Mr Miles' claim for wages in respect of a period of industrial action.
Many collective agreements state that they are to be "binding in honour only". In Marley v Forward Trust Group Ltd the Court of Appeal holds that this applies between the parties to the agreement, ie the union and employer, and does not affect the legal enforceability of terms of collective agreements which are incorporated into contracts of employment of individuals.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to trade unions and trade union recognition.