Statutory union recognition in the UK: a work in progress

• Published date: 01 January 2012
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2338.2011.00661.x
• Date: 01 January 2012
• Author: Tor Brodtkorb

Statutory union recognition in the UK:

a work in progress

Tor Brodtkorb

ABSTRACTirj_66170..84

The 1999 scheme for statutory union recognition has been criticised for being too

complex, and for leaving important matters unclear, for doing too little for workers

and unions and for requiring too much from employers. The similarity to the US

system has also been criticised. There were fears that attempts to achieve statutory

union recognition would redirect the energy of trade unions in the UK to fruitless

limbs, forcing unions and employers into antagonistic litigation. Although some of

these criticisms are tenable, legislation seldom satisfies all parties affected by it, and all

new legislation is haunted by the spectre of unintended consequences. Nevertheless,

the system of statutory union recognition adopted in the UK strikes a reasonable

balance between the interests of the rival parties and appears to function efficiently

and, for the most part, fairly.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Employment Relations Act (ERA) 1999 enacted into UK labour law a system of

statutory trade union recognition under which a union can compel an employer to

recognise and bargain with it. The goals of the government in passing the legislation

were to create a workable system whereby employers may be compelled to recognise

unions with a majority of support in a relevant workforce, while at the same time, to

encourage unions and employers to negotiate voluntary agreements outside of the

statutory procedure. The possibility of a union attaining statutory recognition is

intended to operate in the background of employer–union relations, persuading

reluctant employers to retain control of their relationships with unions by negotiating

voluntary recognition in order to forestall mandatory statutory union recognition.

The statutory procedure is an attempt to have the best of both worlds: preserving the

voluntarist and cooperative tradition of British workplace representation while

adopting the feature of US labour law that allows a representative union to compel an

employer to negotiate.

This scheme for statutory union recognition set out in the Employment Relations

Act 1999 has been criticised for being too detailed and complex, and for leaving

❒Tor Brodtkorb is an Assistant Professor of Business Law and Ethics in the School of Business and

Management, American University of Sharjah. Correspondence should be addressed to Tor Brodtkorb,

School of Business and Management, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah 26666, United Arab

Emirates; email: tbrodtkorb@aus.edu

Industrial Relations Journal 43:1, 70–84

ISSN 0019-8692

© 2012 The Author(s)

Industrial Relations Journal © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and

350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.