ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION The law relating to the capacity of a trade union to take industrial action underwent massive change during the Conservative administration of 1979-97. It is perhaps hardly surprising that the Labour government of 1974-79 gave unions a great deal of freedom to pursue industrial action and operate closed shops. This period of time is seen as a period of trade union strength during which there was high union membership and unions had total immunity from actions in tort. The Conservatives, on the other hand, wanted to curtail trade union power and, some would argue, bring back the provisions of the ill-fated Industrial Relations Act 1971. What is important to note, however, is that, first, the Conservatives did not restrict trade union power by one piece of legislation as previously, but adopted what is known as the ‘softly, softly’ approach. As such, since 1979, we had the Employment Act 1980, the Employment Act 1982, the Trade Union Act 1984, the Employment Act 1988, the Employment Act 1989, the Employment Act 1990, the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act (TULR(C)A) 1992, the Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act (TURERA) 1993 and the Employment Rights Act (ERA) 1996. Not all of these affect trade unions directly. It is, however, wrong to argue that all of these pieces of legislation returned the law to that of 1971. Many would argue that this had been successfully achieved by 1984 and that legislation after that date took the law much further than the Industrial Relations Act. While the Labour government introduced some minor changes by the Employment Relations Acts 1999 and 2004, most particularly in relation to minor breaches of the statutory balloting provisions, major legislative intervention since 1997 has been in the area of recognition (Employment Relations Act 1999) and increasing protection for individual employees against inducements by their employers to join or not to join a union, not to take part in industrial action, or to pull out of collective bargaining (Employment Relations Act 2004). Little has been done legislatively in the area of industrial action.
