Employment Act 1988

16 Remedy with respect to ballot on use of funds for political purposes

(1) A person who claims—

(a) that any ballot for the purposes of the 1913 Act (which relates to ballots on the use of funds for political purposes) has been taken otherwise than in accordance with rules approved for the purpose by the Certification Officer under section 4 of that Act; or

(b) that there has been a failure, in relation to any proposed ballot for those purposes, to comply with any rules approved under that section in relation to that proposed ballot,

may apply to the Certification Officer or to the court for a declaration that the ballot has been so taken or that there has been such a failure.

(2) A person shall not make an application under subsection (1) above unless he is a member of the trade union in question at the time of the application and, in the case of an application by virtue of paragraph (a) of that subsection, was such a member at the time when the ballot was taken.

(3) An application under subsection (1) above in respect of any ballot shall not be made at any time after the end of the period of one year beginning with the day on which the result of the ballot is announced by the trade union in question.

(4) The provisions of subsections (3) to (13) of section 5 of the 1984 Act and the provisions of section 6 of that Act (which relate to an application with respect to a failure by a trade union to comply with the requirements of that Act in relation to an election) shall apply in relation to an application under subsection (1) above as they apply in relation to an application under the said section 5, but with the necessary modifications, that is to say, as if—

(a) for any reference to an election there were substituted a reference to a ballot for the purposes of the 1913 Act;

(b) for the reference in subsection (8) of the said section 5 to section 2 of the 1984 Act there were substituted a reference to rules approved under section 4 of the 1913 Act; and

(c) for the reference in subsection (10) of the said section 5 to the remedy for a failure to comply with one or more of the provisions of Part I of the 1984 Act or, in relation to an election, with one or more of the provisions of sections 13 and 15 above there were substituted a reference to the remedy—

(i) for the taking of a ballot for the purposes of the 1913 Act otherwise than in accordance with rules approved under the said section 4; or

(ii) for a failure, in relation to any proposed ballot for those purposes, to comply with rules so approved.

(5) Section 6A of the 1913 Act (application of sections 3 to 6 of that Act to employers' associations) shall apply to this section as it applies to sections 3 to 6 of, and the Schedule to, that Act.