Employment Act 1990

4 Secondary action

(1) Nothing in section 13 of the [1974 c. 52.] Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 (acts in contemplation or furtherance of trade disputes) prevents an act from being actionable in tort on a ground specified in subsection (1)(a) or (b) of that section where one of the facts relied on for the purpose of establishing liability is that there has been secondary action which does not satisfy the requirements of this section.

(2) There is secondary action in relation to a trade dispute when, and only when, a person—

(a) induces another to break a contract of employment or interferes or induces another to interfere with its performance, or

(b) threatens that a contract of employment under which he or another is employed will be broken or its performance interfered with, or that he will induce another to break a contract of employment or to interfere with its performance,

and the employer under the contract of employment is not the employer party to the dispute.

(3) Secondary action satisfies the requirements of this section only if it is done in the course of such attendance as is declared lawful by section 15 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 (peaceful picketing)—

(a) by a worker employed (or, in the case of a worker not in employment, last employed) by the employer party to the dispute, or

(b) by a trade union official whose attendance is lawful by virtue of subsection (1)(b) of that section.

(4) For the purposes of this section an employer shall not be treated as party to a dispute between another employer and workers of that employer; and where more than one employer is in dispute with his workers, the dispute between each employer and his workers shall be treated as a separate dispute.

In this subsection “worker” has the same meaning as in section 29 of the [1974 c. 52.] Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 (meaning of trade dispute).

(5) An act in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute which is primary action in relation to that dispute may not be relied on as secondary action in relation to another trade dispute.

Primary action means such action as is mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (2) where the employer under the contract of employment is the employer party to the dispute.

(6) In this section “contract of employment” includes any contract under which one person personally does work or performs services for another, and related expressions shall be construed accordingly.

(7) Other expressions used in this section and the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 have the same meanings in this section as in that Act.