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Voluntary recognition of a trade union
[ch 5: pages 134-135]Many 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 union recognition is based on voluntary agreement with the employer, formalised into a written recognition agreement, known as voluntary recognition. Like most collective agreements, a voluntary recognition agreement is not legally enforceable. Instead, it is binding in honour only.
Recognition is about negotiating and bargaining, not 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 enabled unions to gain recognition even if the employer is opposed. The design of the statutory recognition procedure is intended to strongly promote negotiation of voluntary recognition agreements. These can be reached at any stage after invoking the procedure. The CAC calls agreements 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.