Enforcing collectively agreed contract terms in the civil courts

Unions often use the civil courts to enforce collectively agreed contract terms. As explained in Chapter 6, collective agreements are not usually directly enforceable by the union against the employer (section 179 Trade Union and Labour Relations Consolidation Act 1992).

To enforce a collective term, it must have been incorporated into the individual employee’s employment contract. In practice, to enforce a collectively agreed contract term, a small group of members must step forward to act as claimants in the legal action, backed by the legal and financial resources of the union. The results of the claim will affect all the workers whose contracts contain the collectively agreed term.

For example, in Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs v Public and Commercial Services Union [2024] UKSC 41, the PCS union and a number of its members succeeded in a claim to enforce the contractual right to have union subscriptions deducted from members’ salaries.