Brexit: Would the Government’s grip on trade unions get tighter?

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Will an exit from the EU empower the Government to reduce the rights of trade unions and the right to strike still further? Paula Rome, partner at Shoosmiths LLP, looks at the potential ramifications.  The rights of employees to have union representation and take industrial action has always been an emotive and politically charged subject in the UK. Recently, one of the most contentious and debated proposals for change by the present Government were those changes proposed to legislation (and related codes of practice) limiting strike action. These changes are now included in the recently passed Trade Union Act 2016. The changes, which will limit industrial action, will undoubtedly be welcomed by some employers who have faced the disruption and inconvenience of strike action, or the threat of it. However, unions must be concerned that these recent changes have taken place against a backdrop of the UK being a signatory to various international instruments protecting the rights of employees to join trade unions and participate in industrial action. These instruments, including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, appear not to have impeded the Government in its reforms.

Right to strike

For some time, it has been strongly argued that the former legislation does not comply with these EU instruments and the guaranteed right to strike that they contain. However, these arguments appear to have had little practical impact on the law in the UK and certainly do not seem to have inhibited the Government’s further restrictions on the right to strike. Although the changes have, to a degree, been watered down, the resulting Trade Union Act 2016 (which