Trade union membership

Section 152 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA) protects individuals dismissed because they are, or propose to become, a member of an independent trade union or take part in its activities at an appropriate time, i.e. outside working hours or inside those hours with the employer’s consent.

A management-grade employee who was also a rep and was dismissed for advising new employees that their only safeguard lay with the union, was held to have been unfairly dismissed under this section (Burgess v Bass Taverns Ltd [1995] EWCA Civ 40).

Employees are protected by section 152 if they are dismissed for asking for union assistance in relation to their employment (Speciality Care v Pachela [1996] IRLR 248). However, this does not include organising or taking part in industrial action (see Dismissal while on strike).

Anyone dismissed for trade union reasons should immediately use the interim relief procedures in section 161 of TULRCA (see Chapter 5: Victimisation).

This must be done within seven days of the dismissal. The application must include a certificate signed by a union official stating that the dismissal is on account of union membership. The tribunal will, if it believes that the full hearing is likely to conclude that the dismissal was union-related, make a continuation order. This will mean that the employer must continue paying the employee pending the full tribunal hearing. A recent example of a union successfully securing such an order was the RMT sponsored case of Eamonn Lynch v London Underground (2011, unreported). See also London City Airport v Chacko ([2013] UKEAT/0013/13.LA), discussed in Chapter 5 - Union and collective organisation.