Overview of the Act
6.The main areas covered by the Act are:
the trade union recognition (and derecognition) procedure (Part 1);
industrial action law (Part 2);
the rights of trade union members, workers and employees, the exclusion and expulsion of persons from trade unions, and general rights of workers and employees (including a power to implement EU requirements on information and consultation in the workplace) (Part 3);
changes to the enforcement procedures relating to the national minimum wage and the agricultural minimum wage (Part 4);
matters relating to the Certification Officer (CO) (Part 5);
the law on the administration of trade unions and a power for the Secretary of State to make funds available for trade union modernisation (Part 6);
supplementary provisions on commencement, Northern Ireland and minor and technical amendments (Part 7).
7.In most cases the Act amends earlier legislation. For example, it amends:
the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992(the “1992 Act”) to clarify and improve the statutory recognition procedure and some industrial action law provisions. The provisions in the 1999 Act relating to trade union law mainly amended and added to the 1992 Act – it is therefore the 1992 Act which is amended by the Act.
the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 to make provision relating to appeals to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) against employment tribunal decisions relating to failure to comply with certain provisions of the 1992 Act and the 1999 Act;
the Employment Rights Act 1996 to provide new protections for employees in respect of jury service;
the 1999 Act to clarify the role of the companion when accompanying a worker in disciplinary and grievance hearings;
the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (and the Agricultural Wages Act 1948 and the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1977) to improve enforcement procedures.
8.Sections 42 and 43, which provide for the implementation of the Information and Consultation Directive (2002/14/EC) in Great Britain and Northern Ireland respectively, and section 54, which makes provision about means of voting in ballots and elections, are the only substantive free-standing provisions in the Act.
9.The majority of the provisions in the Act extend to Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) only. However, as mentioned above, section 43 gives a power to Northern Ireland to implement the Information and Consultation Directive and the Act contains a section (section 58) enabling changes corresponding to some of the provisions of this Act to be made to legislation in Northern Ireland by Order in Council, using the negative resolution procedure (see paragraph 384).
10.Part 4 of the Act makes provision for changes to the national minimum wage and agricultural minimum wage enforcement regimes. The changes to the national minimum wage enforcement regime extend to Northern Ireland since the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 itself extends there. However, the changes relating to enforcing the agricultural minimum wage do not extend to Scotland since agriculture, and agricultural wages, are devolved matters in Scotland.
