Trade Union Law and Collective Employment Rights (2nd edition)

Citation

Jefferson, M. (2008), "Trade Union Law and Collective Employment Rights (2nd edition)", International Journal of Law and Management, Vol. 50 No. 5, pp. 262-263. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542430810903922

This is the second edition of a book called Trade Union Law when first published in 1999 by Blackstone Press. The new title aptly summarises the switch in emphasis of the law over the last decade or so brought about by the influence of E.C. law; by the time of the third edition the book may become just Collective Employment Rights. Its coverage is that often called “collective labour law” as distinguished from “individual employment law”. Not just has the law changed from one dealing almost exclusively with trade unions at the collective level (e.g. when treating of the so‐called right to strike) to one in part dealing with E.C. directives, particularly those concerned with works councils and other institutions conveying information and consultation rights. If we were to look at the current content of the book from the viewpoint of thirty years ago, some parts are recognisable such as the economic torts and the golden formula (the latter vastly reduced in scope but nevertheless recognisable); some are new ways of attempting to deal with old problems (such as the third scheme for the statutory recognition of unions); and some, especially those based on E.C. law, are novel. The law has come a long way from what is sometimes perceived as the golden era of labour law, the age of laissez‐faire, and of course the decline in trade unionism (down from over 13 million members in 1979 to something over 7M in the new millennium) particularly in the private sector has led to demands for new ways of representing workers, even if unions in the UK would prefer to adopt a single channel approach. The present Labour government signalled its attitude to trade unions in Tony Blair's foreword to the White Paper Fairness at Work, 1998: there was to be no going back, and indeed there has been no going back, on picketing, the closed shop, and perhaps surprisingly the Conservatives' restrictions on trade union freedoms. Important new cases are rare (cf. Wilson & Palmer vs UK [2002] I.R.L.R. 568 (ECHR) and Gate Gourmet Ltd. vs T.G.W.U. [2005] EWHC 1889, [2005] I.R.L.R. 881 (QBD)). With regard to these areas the law has ossified – the last consolidation statute, the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, does not need reconsolidating and such changes has there have been have easily been inserted.

What then does the book under review provide? It is very much a law book for a practising lawyer. There are some glimpses as to why the law has changed and some criticisms are made. Nevertheless, the book aims to provide a lawyer with a clear analysis of the law, some of which is ferociously complicated (e.g. the statutory recognition procedure, on which see Chapter 4). In this respect the book excels. It is easy to follow and much use is made of bullet points. Sometimes the full section under discussion is usefully excerpted. After an introduction to the history of the topic and to the relevant institutions, the author tackles this field of law in a sensible manner: the definition of unions and employers' organisations, statutory recognition, worker consultation rights, the duties of trade unions, “trade union‐related employment rights” (covering e.g. the right to associate and the right to time off for union duties and activities), a chapter on the economic torts (here called the industrial torts, an old‐fashioned phrase), followed by one on the immunities and loss of the immunities, remedies against unions and then two quite novel chapters, one on “third party relationships” such as those between the union and the employers' suppliers, and one on the unions and the criminal law including public order offences in the context of picketing. The editing is good but I mention one point where a reader may become confused – this is on p. 255 where at first the protected period for automatic unfairness in relation to industrial action is stated to be eight weeks but later the period is stated to have been extended to 12 weeks, an issue some may find tricky: the new law should have been stated first. A bibliography at the end of the book or further reading at the end at each chapter would have been helpful.

I used to have on my shelves a copy of Bryn Perrins' Trade Union Law, Butterworths, 1985, which, even if in print, would be vastly out of date. The competitor title is Charles Barrows' Industrial Relations Law, 2nd edition, Cavendish Publishing, 2002, which is longer in the tooth, misses out on consultation rights (it deals almost exclusively with trade union law), and is more student‐directed. If one finds difficulty handling the multi‐volumed Harvey on Industrial Relations and Employment Law and Sweet and Maxwell's Encyclopedia of Employment Law, Nick Humphreys' book provides a welcome vade mecum for legal practitioners.