Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974

30 General provisions as to interpretation

(1) In this Act, except so far as the context otherwise requires,—

• " act " and " action " each includes omission and references to doing an act or taking action shall be construed accordingly;

• " collective agreement " means any agreement or arrangement made by or on behalf of one or more trade unions and one or more employers or employers' associations and relating to one or more of the matters mentioned in section 29(1) above ;

• " contract of employment " means a contract of service or of apprenticeship, whether it is express or implied and (if it is express) whether it is oral or in writing;

• " dismissal procedures agreement " means an agreement in writing with respect to procedures relating to dismissal made by or on behalf of one or more independent trade unions and one or more employers or employers' associations ;

• " employee " means an individual who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, worked under) a contract of employment, otherwise than in police service ;

• " employers' association " includes a combination of employers and employers' associations ;

• " independent trade union " means a trade union which—

  (a)

  is not under the domination or control of an employer or a group of employers or of one or more employers' associations; and

  (b)

  is not liable to interference by an employer or any such group or association (arising out of the provision of financial or material support or by any other means whatsoever) tending towards such control;

• " individual proprietor " means an individual who is the owner of an undertaking ;

• " 1971 Act " means the [1971 c. 72.] Industrial Relations Act 1971 ;

• " official ", in relation to a trade union, means any person who is an officer of the union or of a branch or section of the union or who (not being such an officer) is a person elected or appointed in accordance with the rules of the union to be a representative of its members or of some of them, including any person so elected or appointed who is an employee of the same employer as the members, or one or more of the members, whom he is to represent;

• " police service " means service—

  (a)

  in England and Wales as a member of a police force or as a special constable ;

  (b)

  as a constable within the meaning of the [1967 c. 77.] Police (Scotland) Act 1967 ;

  (c)

  as a member of any constabulary maintained by virtue of any enactment; or

  (d)

  in any other capacity by virtue of which a person has the powers or privileges of a constable;

• " position ", in relation to an employee, means the following matters taken as a whole, that is to say, his status as an employee, the nature of his work and his terms and conditions of employment;

• " Registrar " has the meaning assigned to it by section 8(1) above;

• " special register body " means an organisation whose name was immediately before the commencement of sections 2 and 3 above entered in the special register maintained under section 84 of the 1971 Act and which for the time being is a company registered under the [1948 c. 38.] Companies Act 1948 or is incorporated by charter or letters patent;

• " tort ", as respects Scotland, means any wrongful or negligent act giving rise to liability in reparation, and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly;

• " union membership agreement " means an agreement or arrangement which—

  (a)

  is made by or on behalf of, or otherwise exists between, one or more independent trade unions and one or more employers or employers' associations ; and

  (b)

  relates to employees of an identifiable class; and

  (c)

  has the effect of requiring the terms and conditions of employment of every employee of that class to include a condition that he must be or become a member of the union or one of the unions which is or are parties to the agreement or arrangement or of another appropriate independent trade union;

• " worker " (subject to the following provisions of this section) means an individual regarded in whichever (if any) of the following capacities is applicable to him, that is to say, as a person who works or normally works or seeks to work—

  (a)

  under a contract of employment; or

  (b)

  under any other contract (whether express or implied, and, if express, whether oral or in writing) whereby he undertakes to do or perform personally any work or services for another party to the contract who is not a professional client of his; or

  (c)

  in employment under or for the purposes of a government department (otherwise than as a member of the naval, military or air forces of the Crown or of any women's service administered by the Defence Council) in so far as any such employment does not fall within paragraph (a) or (b) above,

  otherwise than in police service.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the definitions in subsection (1) of this section, in this Act—

(a) " worker" includes an individual regarded in his capacity as one who works or normally works or seeks to work as a person providing general medical services, pharmaceutical services, general dental services or general ophthalmic services in accordance with arrangements made by an Area Health Authority or Family Practitioner Committee under section 33, section 38, section 40 or section 41 of the [1946 c. 81.] National Health Service Act 1946 or by a Health Board under section 34, section 39, section 40 or section 42 of the [1947 c. 27.] National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947; and

(b) "employer" includes any Area Health Authority, Family Practitioner Committee or Health Board in accordance with whose arrangements a person provides or has provided or normally provides or seeks to provide any such service as aforesaid.

(3) Subject to subsection (4) below, in this Act " successor ", in relation to the employer of an employee, means a person who, in consequence of a change occurring (whether by virtue of a sale or other disposition or by operation of law) in the ownership of the undertaking or of part of the undertaking for the purposes of which the employee was employed, has become the owner of that undertaking or of that part of it, as the case may be.

(4) Subsection (3) above shall have effect (subject to the necessary modifications) in relation to a case where—

(a) the person by whom an undertaking or part of an undertaking is owned immediately before a change is one of the persons by whom (whether as partners, trustees or otherwise) it is owned immediately after the change, or

(b) the persons by whom an undertaking or part of an undertaking is owned immediately before a change (whether as partners, trustees or otherwise) include the persons by whom, or include one or more of the persons by whom, it is owned immediately after the change,

as that subsection has effect where the previous owner and the new owner are wholly different persons; and any reference in this Act to a successor of an employer shall be construed accordingly.

(5) For the purposes of this Act any two employers are to be treated as associated if one is a company of which the other (directly or indirectly) has control, or if both are companies of which a third person (directly or indirectly) has control; and in this Act " associated employer " shall be construed accordingly.

(6) For the purposes of this Act it is immaterial whether the law which (apart from this Act) governs any persons' employment is the law of the United Kingdom, or of a part of the United Kingdom, or not.

(7) Except so far as the context otherwise requires, any reference in this Act to any enactment shall be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended or extended by or under any other enactment, including this Act.