Re Legality or otherwise
Some interesting comments from the SLF forum to put the legalaties in perspective...
>>Radio 2's Jeremy Vine had Bob Crowe from the RMT union on to discuss the recent High Court ruling against Unison, and he made a very interesting statement to the fact that ALL strikes are in fact illegal and a breach of contract in the UK, all a ballot does is to protect workers for a 12 week period from dismissal, and the union concerned from financial punishment from the employer
>>The simple, hard and rather unfair reality is that any employer can sack any employee at anytime for anything – the employer may have to justify their actions and they may indeed be called to provide compensation (far from substantial however) if found to be in the wrong. This doesn’t alter the fact that the employee is sacked and remains so.
It is a requirement of UK law that these words have to be present on the ballot paper: - "If you take part in a strike or other industrial action, you may be in breach of your contract of employment."
The law was later amended to add the following also: - “However, if you are dismissed for taking part in strike or other industrial action which is called officially and is otherwise lawful, the dismissal will be unfair if it takes place fewer than twelve weeks after you started taking part in the action, and depending on the circumstances may be unfair if it takes place later."
The important bit to note here is “….is otherwise lawful, the dismissal will be unfair….” Unfair note, not illegal
>>"Illegal" is probably the wrong word to use. The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 uses the terms "Protected" and "Unprotected" Industrial Action. A breach of this act could render the strike "unprotected", but not "illegal".