On 15 July 2015, the
Government published a draft Trade Union Bill which sets out
changes to tighten the law on industrial action.
What is the current position?
There is no general right to
take industrial action under UK law. In most cases, employees
taking industrial action will be acting unlawfully since by doing
so, they will be acting in breach of their contracts of employment.
A trade union calling the strike will therefore be inducing such
breaches.
However, under current
legislation, provided statutory conditions are met, employers are
unable to sue trade unions for inducement and certain other torts,
or to dismiss employees fairly for taking industrial action.
Much of the legislation
regulating industrial action was introduced in the 1980s by the
then-Conservative Government. The current provisions are now
contained in the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation)
Act 1992 ("TULRCA"). These provisions are complex.
