Employment Relations Act 1999

17 Collective agreements: detriment and dismissal.

(1) The Secretary of State may make regulations about cases where a worker—

(a) is subjected to detriment by his employer, or

(b) is dismissed,

on the grounds that he refuses to enter into a contract which includes terms which differ from the terms of a collective agreement which applies to him.

(2) The regulations may—

(a) make provision which applies only in specified classes of case;

(b) make different provision for different circumstances;

(c) include supplementary, incidental and transitional provision.

(3) In this section—

• “collective agreement” has the meaning given by section 178(1) of the [1992 c. 52.] Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992; and

• “employer” and “worker” have the same meaning as in section 296 of that Act.

(4) The payment of higher wages or higher rates of pay or overtime or the payment of any signing on or other bonuses or the provision of other benefits having a monetary value to other workers employed by the same employer shall not constitute a detriment to any worker not receiving the same or similar payments or benefits within the meaning of subsection (1)(a) of this section so long as—

(a) there is no inhibition in the contract of employment of the worker receiving the same from being the member of any trade union, and

(b) the said payments of higher wages or rates of pay or overtime or bonuses or the provision of other benefits are in accordance with the terms of a contract of employment and reasonably relate to services provided by the worker under that contract.