Commentary Part One: Union Recognition
11.Schedule A1 of the 1992 Act (inserted by section 1 of, and Schedule 1 to, the 1999 Act) established a statutory procedure for the recognition and derecognition of trade unions for the purposes of collective bargaining on behalf of a particular group of workers.
12.The Government’s approach was to create a mechanism which enabled recognition of the union(s) by the employer where the majority of the relevant workforce wanted this. The aim of the mechanism is to encourage the voluntary settlement of claims wherever possible, the statutory procedure therefore acting as a fall-back system.
13.Most of the changes made by Part 1 of this Act are to Schedule A1 (unless otherwise stated). The following paragraphs briefly describe the Schedule.
14.Part I of Schedule A1 provides that in certain circumstances a trade union (or trade unions) may make an application to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) for a declaration that it should be recognised for the purpose of conducting collective bargaining on behalf of a group or groups of workers employed by an employer in a particular bargaining unit.
15.Part II of the Schedule provides that where a voluntary agreement for recognition is made between the parties, after a request for recognition has been made under the Schedule, the employer has to maintain that agreement for three years unless the union ends it before that time. This is known as semi-voluntary recognition. If, following the conclusion of an agreement for recognition, the parties are unable to agree a bargaining procedure, an application may be made to the CAC for it to determine one. Part II is designed to afford protection to unions which withdraw from the statutory process to agree a voluntary deal, and therefore to encourage the voluntary settlement of claims.
16.Part III sets out a procedure to be followed by the parties and the CAC where a union has been recognised through the statutory procedures and, as a result of a change in the employer's business, either the union or the employer believes the bargaining unit has changed or has ceased to exist.
17.Parts IV and V of the Schedule provide that where recognition results from an earlier declaration by the CAC, it may in certain circumstances, on application from the employer or one or more workers in the bargaining unit, declare a union to be derecognised.
18.Part VI provides for workers to be able to invoke the statutory derecognition procedure where an employer has voluntarily recognised a union which does not have a certificate of independence.
19.A significant number of the changes made by Part 1 of the Act relate to Part I of Schedule A1. There are a number of stages in the process contained in Part I of the Schedule, usually with a specific timetable for each.