Neil Todd of Thompsons Solicitors outlines the legal steps demanded of unions ahead of strike action
We are seeing an increase in industrial action across the country and, in every instance, unions and their members will have gone through legally required steps to take strike action.
A union must serve a “notice of ballot” on an employer before any ballot opens and then a “notice of action” when it is ready to call industrial action. The notice of ballot must contain either:
A list of the categories of employee to be balloted with the numbers in each category; also a list of their workplaces with the number in each; and then the total figure of all those concerned and an explanation of how the figures were arrived at;
OR - where some, or all, of the employees concerned are employees from whose wages the employer makes deductions representing payments to the union (i.e. check-off), either the lists and figures (with the explanation) above, or such information as will enable the employer readily to deduce that information.
Fail to follow these requirements and the ballot can be challenged.
The union endeavours to ensure that its membership database is accurate but depends on members for information, so firefighters should make sure the information it holds is up to date through their brigade reps: fbu.org.uk/regions-nations
