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PART VISECRET BALLOTS BEFORE INDUSTRIAL ACTION

Interpretation of Part VI

46.—(1) In this Part—

“authorisation or endorsement” means an authorisation or endorsement of an act which, by virtue of Article 21, causes the act to be taken, for the purposes mentioned in that Article, to have been done by the trade union;

“merchant seaman” means a person whose employment, or the greater part of it, is carried out on board seagoing ships;

“offshore worker” means any person in employment to which section 127 of the Employment Protection Act 1975(1) (employment for purposes of activities in territorial or other offshore waters) applies, other than one who is in such employment in any area where the law of Great Britain applies;

“overseas member”, in relation to a trade union, means a member of the union (other than a merchant seaman or offshore worker) who is outside Northern Ireland throughout the period during which votes may be cast;

“place of work”, in relation to any person who is employed, means the premises occupied by his employer at or from which that person works or, where he does not work at or from any such premises or works at or from more than one set of premises, the premises occupied by his employer with which his employment has the closest connection;

“post” means a postal service which—

(a)

is provided by the Post Office or under a licence granted under section 68 of the British Telecommunications Act 1981(2); or

(b)

does not infringe the exclusive privilege conferred on the Post Office by section 66(1) of that Act only by virtue of an order made under section 69 of that Act;

“relevant act” means an act (done in the course of the action mentioned in Article 44(2)(a)) of inducing a person to break his contract of employment or to interfere with its performance; and

“working hours”, in relation to an employee, means any time when, in accordance with his contract of employment, he is required to be at work.

(2) In this Part any reference to a breach or interference occurring in the course of a strike or other industrial action includes a reference to a breach or interference which, taken together with any corresponding action relating to other contracts of employment, constitutes that action.

(3) In this Part references to an inducement, in relation to a member of a trade union, include references to an inducement which is or would be ineffective, whether because of that member’s unwillingness to be influenced by it or for any other reason.