Employment Act 1988

2 Right not to be denied access to the courts etc

(1) Notwithstanding anything in the rules of any trade union or in the practice of any court, where—

(a) a person who is or has been a member of a trade union commences proceedings in any court with respect to any relevant matter;

(b) that person has previously made a valid application to the union for that matter to be submitted for determination or conciliation in accordance with the union’s rules; and

(c) those proceedings are commenced after the end of the period of six months beginning with the day on which the union received the application,

the rules requiring or allowing that matter to be so submitted and the fact that any steps remain to be taken for the purposes of, or in connection with, the determination or conciliation of that matter shall be regarded for all purposes as irrelevant to any question whether those proceedings should be dismissed, stayed or sisted, or adjourned.

(2) If a court is satisfied in any proceedings with respect to any relevant matter that any delay in the taking of steps for the purposes of, or in connection with, the determination or conciliation of that matter in accordance with the rules of any trade union was attributable to the unreasonable conduct of the person who commenced the proceedings, the court may, in relation to those proceedings, treat the period of six months specified in paragraph (c) of subsection (1) above as extended by such further period as the court considers appropriate.

(3) Where any person has made an invalid application to a trade union for any relevant matter to be submitted for determination or conciliation in accordance with the union’s rules, the application shall be deemed to be valid for the purposes of subsection (1) above unless the union informs that person, before the end of the period of twenty-eight days beginning with the day on which the union received the application, of all the respects in which the application contravened the requirements of those rules.

(4) For the purposes of this section a matter is a relevant matter, in relation to a person who is or has been a member of a trade union, if—

(a) it is required or allowed under the rules of the union to be submitted for determination or conciliation in accordance with those rules; and

(b) a provision of the rules purporting to provide for such a determination or conciliation to be that person’s only remedy in respect of that matter has no effect or, as the case may be, would have no effect if there were one.

(5) In this section—

(a) references, in relation to a trade union, to its rules include references to any arbitration or other agreement entered into in pursuance of any requirement imposed by or under the rules of the union; and

(b) references to the taking of steps for the purposes of, or in connection with, the determination or conciliation of any matter which has been submitted for determination or conciliation in accordance with the rules of a trade union include references to the taking of any steps for the purposes of, or in connection with, any appeal, review or reconsideration under those rules of any determination or award made on that submission.

(6) This section shall be without prejudice to any enactment or rule of law by virtue of which a court would, apart from this section, disregard any rules of a trade union, or any such fact as is mentioned in subsection (1) above, when determining whether to exercise any jurisdiction of the court or when determining how to exercise any such jurisdiction.