LRD guides and handbook May 2019

Law at Work 2019 - the trade union guide to employment law

Chapter 5

Voluntary recognition of a trade union





[ch 5: page 140-141]

Many of the statutory rights and protections 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





www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2013/0305_12_1203.html