No express statutory protection from action short of dismissal

Although the law provides protection from dismissal during the first 12 weeks of lawful industrial action, it provides no express statutory protection for striking workers from action short of dismissal. This was illustrated by the 2010 dispute between British Airways and cabin crew, members of Unite, when the law did not prevent the employer withdrawing travel concessions from workers who had been on strike.

The absence of statutory protection from action short of dismissal as a result of official industrial action is at odds with rulings of the European Court of Human Rights that state clearly that under Article 11 there is a right to bargain collectively and to take industrial action (see page 113). More information on this issue can be found in a blog post by Keith Ewing and Alan Bogg in the context of the higher education pensions dispute: Pensions dispute: Bullying tactics violate workers’ human rights, 11 November 2014, available from the website of the Institute of Employment Rights.

www.ier.org.uk/blog/pensions-dispute-bullying-tactics-violate-workers-human-rights