Strike Actions

Alberto Saviolo Greggio
University of Salford Manchester UK


Strike actions

During industrial or strike action your continuous employment is treated as 'postponed'. This means that the period you were on strike for will not count towards your continuous employment, but it does not break the continuity of your period of employment.
Instead your starting date is treated as beingpostponed for that number of days. For example, if you started with a new employer on 1 February and over the course of a year you spent five days on strike, your starting date for continuous employment would be 6 February.

Being paid during industrial action

You are free to withdraw your labour by taking industrial action and you cannot be forced by the courts to stay at or return to work.
If youtake industrial action, you will probably be in breach of your employment contract and your employer:
• is unlikely to pay you for the period during which industrial action is taken

• can sue you for breaking your employment contract (this does not happen often but is always possible)

Taking industrial action does not usually break your continuous employment. However, the days youtook industrial action on will not usually count towards your total length of service with your employer.
This means that your periods of employment both before and after you took industrial action will normally count towards your total length of service. This is important when working out certain rights under your employment contract (eg your pension) and some statutory rights (eg statutoryredundancy pay).

Being dismissed for taking part in protected industrial action

You will usually be protected against being dismissed for taking part in ‘protected industrial action’.
Industrial action will normally be protected industrial action if it is official action organised by your trade union in-line with the law. It will be organised in that way if:
• the dispute is a tradedispute between workers and their own employer

• a secret postal ballot has been held and the majority of members voting have supported the action

• detailed notice about the action has been given to the employer at least seven days before it commences

• it has been called for by someone in the trade union with proper authority

If you are dismissed for taking industrialaction for 12 weeks or less (including a period of just a few hours or days), you will be able to make a claim for unfair dismissal and your dismissal will be unfair. This applies whether you are dismissed while taking part in the action or at any time after you stopped taking part.
When working out whether you have been taking part for 12 weeks or less any lock-out days (when your employer stops youfrom working) aren't counted.
. Industrial action and trade unions
. Unfair dismissal
If you continue to take part in protected industrial action for more than 12 weeks your rights are different. If you are dismissed for taking part after the end of the 12 weeks your dismissal will only be unfair if, at the time of your dismissal, your employer has not followed reasonable steps tosettle the dispute with the trade union.
For example, it may be unfair for your employer to dismiss strikers if your employer has unreasonably refused a request by the trade union to involve a third party to conciliate (help agree) a settlement.
Dismissal and unprotected industrial action

Official industrial action organised by a trade union is 'unprotected' if:
• the trade union hasfailed to hold a postal ballot in-line with the law

• the trade union has not told the employer, in-line with the law, about the industrial action ahead of a ballot or ahead of the industrial action

• it has been disowned by the trade union (eg because someone without authority called for the action, or because the trade union considers the dispute to be resolved), sometimes called...