Collective employee relations

New and updated

• Type:

  FAQs

  Is an employer obliged to stick to the terms of a collective agreement?

• Type:

  FAQs

  What statutory rights go along with the right to conduct collective bargaining?

• Type:

  FAQs

  Can an employer refuse to disclose information to the union for the purposes of collective bargaining?

• Date:

  15 March 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: Collectively agreed terms may have been incorporated by custom and practice

  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.

• Date:

  1 September 2000

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Collective redundancies: Imposition of new terms constituted proposed "dismissal as redundant"

  An employer that gave notice to terminate employees' existing contracts of employment, and offered to re-engage them on new terms, had a duty to consult employee representatives before imposing the new terms, holds the EAT in GMB v Man Truck & Bus UK Ltd.

• Date:

  1 September 2000

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Scotch Premier Meat Ltd v Burns and others

  In Scotch Premier Meat Ltd v Burns and others [2000] IRLR 639 EAT, the EAT held that an employment tribunal had not erred in holding that the employers were "proposing to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees" within the meaning of s.188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act, notwithstanding that, as an alternative option, they were considering selling the business as a going concern.

• Date:

  1 December 1998

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Industrial action: Dispute about employment with future employer not a "trade dispute"

  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.

• Date:

  15 December 1996

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Contracts of employment: No implied term in "annualised hours" contract

  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.

• Date:

  15 April 1996

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Redundancy consultation: Definition of "establishment" under Collective Redundancies Directive

  An "establishment" for the purposes of the EC Collective Redundancies Directive means the unit to which the workers made redundant are assigned to carry out their duties, rules the ECJ in Rockfon A/S v Specialarbejderforbundet i Danmark.

• Date:

  1 November 1995

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Industrial action: Participation of new members does not invalidate strike ballot

  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.