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What's in the Act

The Act bought into affect:

• measures to tackle the intimidation of workers during recognition and derecognition ballots by introducing rules which define improper campaigning activity by employers and unions and by clarifying what "reasonable access" unions have to the workers in the bargaining unit.

• measures to improve the operation of the statutory recognition procedure.  For example, it clarifies issues surrounding the determination of the appropriate bargaining unit; clarifies the “topics” for collective bargaining; allows unions to communicate with workers at an earlier stage in the process, and clarifies and builds upon the current legislation relating to the supply of information to the Central Arbitration Committee and the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas); 
     
• provisions to increase the protections against the dismissal of employees taking official, lawfully-organised industrial action by extending the "protected period" from 8 to 12 weeks; exempting "lock out" days from the 12 week protected period; and, defining more closely the actions which employers and unions should undertake when taking reasonable procedural steps to resolve industrial disputes; measures to simplify the law on industrial action ballots and ballot notices;

• measures to widen the ability of unions to expel or exclude racist activists and others whose political behaviour is incompatible with trade union membership. 

• a power for the Secretary of State to make funds available to independent trade unions and federations of trade unions to modernise their operations (see Written Statement of 10 February 2004);
   
• measures to implement the European Court of Human Rights judgment in the case of Wilson & Palmer, which ensure that union members have clear rights to use their union's services, and cannot be induced by employers to relinquish essential union rights or dissuaded from seeking union recognition;
  
• measures to improve the operation of some individual employment rights such as a clarification of the role of the companion in grievance and disciplinary hearings; and technical changes to flexible working legislation concerning protections from unfair dismissal;
   
• new protections for employees who are dismissed or who suffer other detriment because they are summoned or have been away from work on jury service;
   
• a power to make regulations to introduce information and consultation in the workplace (in Great Britain and Northern Ireland), by implementing the EC Directive on Information and Consultation (Council Directive 2002/14/EC) The Government consultation on the draft regulations closed on 7 November 2003. The Government's response sets out the findings of the consultation;
   
• measures to improve the enforcement regime of the national minimum wage.  The Government published a consultation note in August 2003, The Government response was published in October 2003;
  
• measures to give the Certification Officer greater powers to strike out weak or vexatious claims;
  
• measures to improve trade union regulation, and a power to allow the Secretary of State to include non-postal methods of balloting in statutory union elections and ballots;