The Industrial Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1992

Peaceful picketing

16.—(1) Nothing in Article 15 shall prevent an act done in the course of picketing from being actionable in tort unless it is done in the course of attendance declared lawful by this Article.

(2) It shall be lawful for a person in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute to attend—

(a) at or near his own place of work; or

(b) if he is an official of a trade union, at or near the place of work of a member of that union whom he is accompanying and whom he represents,

for the purpose only of peacefully obtaining or communicating information, or peacefully persuading any person to work or abstain from working.

(3) If a person works or normally works—

(a) otherwise than at any one place; or

(b) at a place the location of which is such that attendance there for a purpose mentioned in paragraph (2) is impracticable,

his place of work for the purposes of that paragraph shall be any premises of his employer from which he works or from which his work is administered.

(4) In the case of a worker who is not in employment where—

(a) his last employment was terminated in connection with a trade dispute; or

(b) the termination of his employment was one of the circumstances giving rise to a trade dispute,

paragraph (2) shall in relation to that dispute have effect as if any reference to his place of work were a reference to his former place of work.

(5) A person who is an official of a trade union by virtue only of having been elected or appointed to be a representative of some of the members of the union shall be regarded for the purposes of paragraph (2) as representing only those members; but otherwise an official of a trade union shall be regarded for those purposes as representing all its members.