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21 September 2012 / Tom Walker
Issue: 7530 / Categories: Features , Terms&conditions , Employment
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Striking a balance

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Does UK plc have the right to strike? Tom Walker reports

In 2009 and 2010 a series of judgments upheld injunctions against strikes called by trade unions. The union movement complained that these were based on the unnecessarily complex balloting technicalities of the Trade Union & Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULR(C)A 1992). 

Indeed, in 2007 the Labour MP John McDonnell had sought to amend sections of TULR(C)A 1992 but failed in parliament, having been “talked out”.

Conversely, in 2011 when a series of strike ballots took place in the then feared “autumn of discontent” the business community, led by the CBI and Boris Johnson, noted that the turnout in some of these ballots were extremely low, often much less than 50%.

They called for a qualified majority of union members to take part in a ballot for it to be valid.  In April 2011 a Private Members Bill put forward by Dominic Raab proposed majority support for a strike ballot.  The motion was rejected.

More recent court decisions over strike injunctions suggest

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