Requirements to notify employers 


To comply with the legislation, a union must also give notice to employers at four key stages as set out below. These are contained in section 226A, TULRCA (amended by the ERA 04).


The DTI, now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), Code of Practice Industrial action ballots and notice to employers, provides further information (although this Code predates the TUA16).


Notification stages 


Stage 1: When taking a decision to ballot for industrial action, a union must first notify the employer in writing, at least seven days before the ballot, that the union intends to hold a ballot, as well as the date when it believes the ballot will begin. The union must also provide either (a) a list of the categories of worker and workplaces, with numbers; or (b) if the employer makes deductions for payments to the union, a check-off list, either the same list as in (a) above, or such information as to enable the employer to identify the employees concerned (section 226A(1), TULRCA).


When compiling the list of categories of worker, unions need only provide numbers by reference to general job categories, and need not be limited to any particular categories, such as those used for pay purposes (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers v Serco Limited t/a Serco Docklands and The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers & Firemen v London & Birmingham Railway Limited t/a London Midland [2011] EWCA Civ 226).


Stage 2: No later than three days before the ballot commences, the employer must have received a sample copy of the ballot paper.


Stage 3: As soon as possible after the ballot result has been declared, the union must notify the employer of the outcome (section 231A, TULCRA), providing information as to the number of workers entitled to vote, number of votes cast, number who answered in favour and against to each question and number of spoiled or invalid voting papers. Once the changes to the balloting thresholds in the TUA16 become law, this notice will also have to state whether the number of votes cast was as least 50% of the bargaining unit (with at least 40% voting in favour in a strike in “important services”). This requirement to notify the employer as soon as possible has been interpreted strictly by courts.


Stage 4: Here, an important change will be made by section 8 of the TUA16 once the section is in force. The amount of notice the union must give the employer before the balloted industrial action begins is currently seven days (section 234A, TULRCA). This is to increase to 14 days (or seven days if the employer agrees).


The notice must be in writing, giving information on the number, category or workplaces of the employees being called upon to take action, the date the action will begin, or the date of each stoppage if planning a series of stoppages, a statement that the union gives notice under section 234A of TULCRA 1992, and the lists of categories of workers and workplaces, as for Stage 1. The notice must also specify whether the action planned is continuous (giving the intended date when it will commence) or discontinuous (giving the intended dates when it will occur). 


When providing an explanation of how figures in the statutory notifications have been arrived at, the union must provide the employer with figures that are as accurate as possible, in the light of information in the union’s possession at the time of providing the figures. Union officers are not required to take any extra steps to obtain additional information from members. In particular, there is no obligation to provide information about precisely who did what and when, in relation to compiling the data (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers v Serco Limited t/a Serco Docklands and The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers & Firemen v London & Birmingham Railway Limited t/a London Midland [2011] EWCA Civ 226).