Insights & News

Employment Appeal Tribunal confirms that an employer’s attempt to bypass collective bargaining was unlawful

10 January 2018

A recent decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal (“EAT”) has confirmed that offers made directly by an employer to its employees risk amounting to unlawful attempts to bypass collective bargaining contrary to s145B of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. This was a costly exercise for the employer as they were ordered to pay penalties of more than £400,000.

The risk for employers in bypassing collective bargaining

16 March 2017

Where an employer has recognised a trade union for collective bargaining purposes, can it still put an offer directly to its employees? This was the thorny issue for consideration in a recent Employment Tribunal decision.

Industrial relations update

22 February 2017

Our summary of recent “collective” employment law developments includes the latest on the Government’s industrial action reforms, the Court of Appeal’s ruling in the Boots case concerning a “sweetheart” recognition agreement and a decision of the Central Arbitration Committee (“CAC”) upholding an information request by the trade union Unite.

Sean Dempsey comments for HR Magazine - The state of the union: The future of IR

Press

13 February 2017

Employment law Partner, Sean Dempsey has commented in an article for HR Magazine which discusses the following question: are trade unions really representing modern workers or do they need to change with the times?

Working Effectively with Trade Unions: Post Brexit and Trade Unions Act

23 January 2017

Lewis Silkin is delighted to be speaking at the upcoming 10th Annual Conference: Working Effectively with Trade Unions : Post-Brexit and Trade Unions Act in London on 1 February.

The Trade Union Act 2016 - the year ahead

04 January 2017

Although the Trade Union Act 2016 (the “Act”) became law in May last year, further legislation is needed to flesh out some of its reforms and bring them into force. Now that the Government has begun publishing this additional legislation and updating related Codes of Practice, we take a look below at some areas where the impact of the Act’s reforms is likely to become clearer over the year ahead.