Employment Act 1982
| Year | 1982 |
Employment Act 1982
1982 CHAPTER 46
An Act to provide for compensation out of public funds for certain past cases of dismissal for failure to conform to the requirements of a union membership agreement; to amend the law relating to workers, employers, trade unions and employers' associations; to make provision with respect to awards by industrial tribunals and awards by, and the procedure of, the Employment Appeal Tribunal; and for connected purposes.
[28th October 1982]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Employee involvement
1 Employee involvement.
(1) Section 16 of the Companies Act 1967 (additional matters of general nature to be dealt with in directors' report) is amended as follows.
(2) In subsection (1), the following paragraph is added at the end—
‘(h ) in the case of relevant companies, contain a statement describing the action that has been taken during the financial year to introduce, maintain or develop arrangements aimed at—
(i) providing employees systematically with information on matters of concern to them as employees
(iii) encouraging the involvement of employees in the company's performance through an employees' share scheme or by some other means,
(iv) achieving a common awareness on the part of all employees of the financial and economic factors affecting the performance of the company.’
(3) After subsection (1) there is inserted the following subsection—
(1A) For the purposes of subsection (1)(h ) above, a company is a ‘relevant company’ if the average number of persons employed by it in each week during the financial year exceeds 250; and for the purposes of this subsection the number of persons employed shall be the quotient derived by dividing by the number of weeks in the financial year the number derived by ascertaining, in relation to each of those weeks, the number of persons who, under contracts of service, were employed in the week (whether throughout it or not) by the company and adding up the numbers ascertained.’
(4) After subsection (7) there is inserted the following subsection—
(8) In subsection (1)(h ) above ‘employee’ does not include a person employed to work wholly or mainly outside the United Kingdom; and for the purposes of subsection (1A) above no regard shall be had to such a person.’
Unfair dismissal
2 Compensation for certain dismissals.
(1) The provisions of Schedule 1 shall have effect for the purpose of enabling the Secretary of State to make payments towards compensating individuals who in certain past cases have been dismissed for failure to conform to the requirements of a union membership agreement.
(2) The expenses incurred by the Secretary of State in consequence of that Schedule shall be defrayed out of money provided by Parliament.
3 Dismissal for non-membership of union.
3. For sections 58 and 58A of the 1978 Act there shall be substituted—
58 ‘Dismissal relating to trade union membership.
(1) Subject to subsection (3), the dismissal of an employee by an employer shall be regarded for the purposes of this Part as having been unfair if the reason for it (or, if more than one, the principal reason) was that the employee—
(a ) was, or proposed to become, a member of an independent trade union, or
(b ) had taken part, or proposed to take part, in the activities of an independent trade union at an appropriate time, or
(c ) was not a member of any trade union, or of a particular trade union, or of one of a number of particular trade unions, or had refused or proposed to refuse to become or remain a member.
(2) In subsection (1) ‘an appropriate time’, in relation to an employee taking part in the activities of a trade union, means a time which either—
(a ) is outside his working hours, or
(b ) is a time within his working hours at which, in accordance with arrangements agreed with or consent given by his employer, it is permissible for him to take part in those activities;
and in this subsection ‘working hours’, in relation to an employee, means any time when, in accordance with his contract of employment, he is required to be at work.
(3) Subject to the following provisions of this section, the dismissal of an employee by an employer shall be regarded for the purposes of this Part as having been fair if—
(a ) it is the practice, in accordance with a union membership agreement, for employees of the employer who are of the same class as the dismissed employee to belong to a specified independent trade union, or to one of a number of specified independent trade unions; and
(b ) the reason (or, if more than one, the principal reason) for the dismissal was that the employee was not, or had refused or proposed to refuse to become or remain, a member of a union in accordance with the agreement; and
(c ) the union membership agreement had been approved in relation to employees of that class in accordance with section 58A through a ballot held within the period of five years ending with the time of dismissal.
(4) Subsection (3) shall not apply if the employee genuinely objects on grounds of conscience or other deeply-held personal conviction to being a member of any trade union whatsoever or of a particular trade union.
(5) Subsection (3) shall not apply if the employee—
(a ) has been among those employees of the employer who belong to the class to which the union membership agreement relates since before the agreement had the effect of requiring them to be or become members of a trade union, and
(b ) has not at any time while the agreement had that effect been a member of a trade union in accordance with the agreement.
(6) Subsection (3) shall not apply if—
(a ) the union membership agreement took effect after 14th August 1980 in relation to the employees of the employer who are of the same class as the dismissed employee, and
(b ) the employee was entitled to vote in the ballot through which the agreement was approved in accordance with section 58A or, if there have been two or more such ballots, in the first of them, and
(c ) the employee has not at any time since the day on which that ballot was held been a member of a trade union in accordance with the agreement.
(7) Subsection (3) shall not apply if the dismissal was from employment in respect of which, at the time of dismissal, either—
(a ) there was in force a declaration made on a complaint presented by the employee under section 4 of the Employment Act 1980 (unreasonable exclusion or expulsion from trade union), or
(b ) proceedings on such a complaint were pending before an industrial tribunal,
unless the employee has at any time during the period beginning with the date of the complaint under section 4 and ending with the effective date of termination been, or failed through his own fault to become, a member of a trade union in accordance with the union membership agreement.
(8) In any case where neither subsection (4) nor subsection (7) has the effect of displacing subsection (3) and the employee—
(a ) holds qualifications which are relevant to the employment in question,
(b ) is subject to a written code which governs the conduct of those persons who hold those qualifications, and
(c ) has—
(i) been expelled from a trade union for refusing to take part in a strike or other industrial action, or
(ii) refused to become or remain a member of a trade union,
subsection (3) shall not apply if the reason (or, if more than one, the principal reason) for his refusal was, in a case falling within paragraph (c )(i), that his taking the action in question would be in breach of the code or, in a case falling within paragraph (c )(ii), that if he became, or as the case may be remained, a member he would be required to take part in a strike, or other industrial action, which would be in breach of that code.
(9) For the purposes of subsections (3)(c ) and (6)(c ), where votes in a ballot may be cast on more than one day, the ballot shall be treated as held on the last of those days.
(10) For the purposes of subsections (3) and (7) the reference to the time of the dismissal shall, in a case where the dismissal was with notice, be construed as a reference to the time when the notice was given.
(11) For the purposes of subsection (7) an employee shall be taken to have failed through his own fault to become a member of a trade union only if the tribunal is satisfied that the fact that he is not a member is attributable to his failure to apply (or re-apply) for membership or to his failure to accept an offer of membership.
(12) Where the employer of any employees changes in such circumstances that the employees' period of continuous employment is not broken, this section and section 58A shall have effect as if any reference to the employees of any class of the later employer included a reference to the employees of that class of the former employer.
(13) Where the reason, or one of the reasons, for the dismissal of an employee was—
(a ) his refusal, or proposed refusal, to comply with a requirement (whether or not imposed by his contract of employment or in...
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