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Cost-of-living crisis: frequently asked questions
04 October 2022As the cost-of-living crisis bites, a growing number of employers are facing demands for pay increases at best, and threats of strikes at worst. This article addresses some employment law implications arising from steps being taken to manage the situation.
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Train strikes: David Hopper interviewed on BBC’s Newsnight
19 August 2022Lewis Silkin’s Industrial Relations specialist David Hopper was interviewed by Newsnight in relation to the current train strikes.
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Court of Appeal overturns injunction restraining employer’s ‘fire and rehire’ exercise
18 July 2022The Court of Appeal has overturned an injunction preventing Tesco from “firing and rehiring” employees in order to remove their contractual entitlement to enhanced pay. Despite the facts of this case being unusual and extreme, the High Court had been wrong to conclude that Tesco could not adopt its proposed course of action.
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Unions’ financial liability increased and government moves to repeal agency worker ban
30 June 2022Against a backdrop of widespread industrial action, the government has quadrupled unions’ potential liability for calling unlawful strikes to £1,000,000. It has also published legislation to repeal the ban on agencies supplying workers to fill in for striking staff.
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When is collective bargaining exhausted and a direct offer of new employment terms allowed? The EAT confirms an objective test
21 June 2022In the first reported application of the Supreme Court’s landmark Kostal decision, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled that an employer could not unilaterally declare that its negotiations with its recognised trade union had finished. As unionised employers may only make direct offers to employees after exhausting their collective bargaining procedure, the employer now faces punitive fines.
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Will the government repeal the ban on agencies supplying workers to fill in during strikes?
16 June 2022Transport secretary Grant Shapps hit the headlines this week when he announced that the government is considering legal changes to allow agencies to supply workers to fill in for striking staff. This is in response to planned strikes across the rail network next week.
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Court of Appeal lifts restriction on employers responding to industrial action
07 April 2022The Court of Appeal has ruled that UK legislation does not prevent employers from taking steps falling short of dismissal in response to industrial action. The UK may be in breach of its international commitments over trade union rights, but it is for Parliament and not the courts to address this sensitive issue.
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New TUC proposals: trade unions to inform and inspire platform workers
17 December 2021The Trades Union Congress has called for trade unions to have a digital right of access to platform and gig economy workers and for the introduction of sectoral collective bargaining. These calls follow the Labour Party’s commitment that the next Labour government will give these rights and others to trade unions.
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New judgment further restricts employers’ scope for responding to industrial action
01 December 2021The Employment Appeal Tribunal recently interpreted the law on detrimental treatment for trade union activities in a way that limits the scope for employers to respond to industrial action. In another decision, it has now decided that participating staff may also bring claims under separate blacklisting regulations, which entitle employees to potentially far greater compensation in the form of an automatic minimum award of £5,000.
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Unions have no veto over changes to terms, Supreme Court confirms
28 October 2021In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has confirmed that trade unions do not enjoy a veto over employers making direct offers to their members to change their terms and conditions of employment.
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Unlawful offers to bypass collective bargaining – narrow scope confirmed
09 September 2021If an employer tells employees who are members of a recognised trade union that it will unilaterally impose new terms, it is not making an “offer” amounting to an unlawful inducement to bypass collective bargaining, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed. The members’ redress is limited to their rights under contract law, such as to work only “under protest” and sue for breach of contract.
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New judgment restricts employers’ scope for responding to industrial action
30 June 2021The Employment Appeal Tribunal has interpreted the law on detrimental treatment for trade union activities in a way that limits how employers may respond to their staff taking industrial action.
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Court of Appeal rejects challenge to Deliveroo riders’ self-employed status
24 June 2021The Court of Appeal has unanimously and emphatically rejected an appeal, based on novel human rights arguments, that Deliveroo riders were “workers” for the purposes of the UK’s trade union recognition legislation.
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Lewis Silkin successful in Deliveroo Court of Appeal rider status challenge
Press Release
24 June 2021By a unanimous 3-0 verdict, the Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s dismissal of a judicial review of a finding by the Central Arbitration Committee that Deliveroo riders are not “workers”. The Court ruled that the riders are not in an “employment relationship” for the purposes of European law.
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I’m still standing - should employers set up a standing body for collective consultation?
10 March 2021Employers may have to contemplate difficult decisions as they look ahead to the lasting effects of the pandemic, including potentially making redundancies. This article discusses whether now might be an opportune time for employers with no recognised trade union to set up a standing body for collective consultation purposes.
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Resourcing for 2021: wider impacts of the present crisis
10 March 2021The final instalment of our three-part series of articles exploring resourcing challenges, opportunities and trends in 2021 examines a range of employment issues including reward strategy, outsourcing and collective representation.
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Court of Appeal rejects human rights challenge to UK union recognition regime
04 March 2021The Court of Appeal has rejected a trade union’s contention that the block on it applying to the Central Arbitration Committee for recognition because an employer already recognised another independent trade union was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
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Trade union recognition
Inbrief
18 February 2021Trade unions exist to further the interests of their members and to help regulate their relations with their employers.
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Trade union’s ‘canny strategy’ met duty of care owed to its member
09 February 2021The High Court has dismissed a claim by a trade union’s former shop steward that it failed to meet its duty of care to him after he was suspended for misconduct. The union provided sound tactical advice in circumstances where his prospects of success against his employer in court were slim.
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Employer acted unlawfully by disciplining union activist for use of its IT systems
27 January 2021University College London has lost its appeal against an Employment Tribunal’s decision that it unlawfully disciplined a union activist for refusing to comply with an instruction to take down an email list he had created for union communications.