![[Basket]](images/basket.png){kind=small}
Your order![[cover image]](images/issue/BK201705.jpg)
Voluntary recognition of a trade union
[ch 5: page 149]Many of the statutory rights and protections for trade unionists explained in this Chapter depend on the union being “recognised” by the employer. A union is recognised when it negotiates agreements with the employer on pay and other terms and conditions on behalf of a group of workers, called a “bargaining unit”. This is the process known as collective bargaining.
In the UK, most trade union recognition is based on voluntary agreement with the employer, formalised into a written recognition agreement. This is known as “voluntary recognition”.
Recognition is about negotiating and bargaining, rather than simply consulting or discussing, as this case shows:
An employer failed to consult the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) over collective redundancies and PCS claimed a protective award (see Chapter 11). There was no formal recognition agreement, so the claim could only succeed if PCS could prove it was the recognised trade union.
There was a prior history of consultation and discussion with PCS over past redundancies but this was not enough, said the EAT, to demonstrate recognition. Instead, PCS had to show a pattern of past involvement in negotiating collective agreements on behalf of the workers for whom the union wanted to claim a protective award. It could not do this, so the claim failed.
Working Links v Public and Commercial Services Union [2012] UKEAT/0305/12/RN
In addition to voluntary recognition, since 1999 a statutory mechanism has been available, enabling unions to gain recognition even if the employer is opposed.
The statutory recognition procedure is designed to strongly encourage negotiation of voluntary recognition agreements. These can be reached at any stage after invoking the procedure. The CAC calls agreements that are reached once a union has invoked the statutory procedure “agreements for recognition”, to distinguish them from wholly voluntary recognition agreements, reached without using the statutory procedure at all. An agreement imposed by the CAC if the parties have failed to reach agreement is known as a “statutory recognition agreement”.