Potential breach of section 145B, TULRCA
[ch 6: page 63]Where an employer attempts to persuade individual workers to accept different terms from those in their collective agreement after a transfer, this could lead to a breach of section 145B, TULRCA, giving rise to a financial penalty.
Section 145B gives members of a union that is recognised or seeking recognition the right not to be offered an inducement to stop or prevent their terms and conditions being collectively bargained by a union.
The penalty for offering a worker an inducement is £3,907 (from April 2017). If multiple offers are made to the same worker, a separate award should be made for each offer. The time limit for a claim is short — just three months. If an offer is made, urgent advice should be taken from the union.
To succeed in a claim, union members must make an arguable case that their employer intended to induce them to abandon their collective terms when making the offer. If they succeed, the burden shifts to the employer to prove that this was not their intention (section 145B (2), TULRCA).