Industrial Action: Strikes and Ballots

[Thanks to Ed McFarlane of EEF for preparing this case summary.]

The Court of Appeal has handed down its decision in Metrobus v UNITE, which is authority for the propositions that:

• a union is obliged to inform an affected employer of the result of a ballot on industrial action as soon as is reasonably practicable, regardless of whether the ballot supports action or the union decides not to take action.
  
• where affected members are partly covered by 'check off' arrangements, a union is obliged to provide with ballot and strike notices sufficient information to enable an employer to readily deduce the numbers, types and workplaces of 'non-check off' employees by providing lists and figures of affected employees, and an explanation of how they were arrived at, along with details of the 'check-off' employees

The Court rejected arguments that the ballot and notice provisions of TULR(C)A 1992 were so onerous as to be incompatible with ECHR Article 11.