The Industrial Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1992

Secondary action

17.—(1) Nothing in Article 15 shall prevent an act from being actionable in tort on a ground specified in paragraph (1)(a) or (b) of that Article in any case where—

(a) the contract concerned is not a contract of employment; and

(b) one of the facts relied upon for the purpose of establishing liability is that there has been secondary action which is not action satisfying the requirements of paragraph (3), (4) or (5) of this Article.

(2) For the purposes of this Article 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,

if the employer under the contract of employment is not a party to the trade dispute.

(3) Secondary action satisfies the requirements of this paragraph if—

(a) the purpose or principal purpose of the secondary action was directly to prevent or disrupt the supply during the dispute of goods or services between an employer who is a party to the dispute and the employer under the contract of employment to which the secondary action relates; and

(b) the secondary action (together with any corresponding action relating to other contracts of employment with the same employer) was likely to achieve that purpose.

(4) Secondary action satisfies the requirements of this paragraph if—

(a) the purpose or principal purpose of the secondary action was directly to prevent or disrupt the supply during the dispute of goods or services between any person and an associated employer of an employer who is a party to the dispute; and

(b) the goods or services are in substitution for goods or services which but for the dispute would have fallen to be supplied to or by the employer who is a party to the dispute; and

(c) the employer under the contract of employment to which the secondary action relates is either the said associated employer or the other party to the supply referred to in sub-paragraph (a); and

(d) the secondary action (together with any corresponding action relating to other contracts of employment with the same employer) was likely to achieve the purpose referred to in sub-paragraph (a).

(5) Secondary action satisfies the requirements of this paragraph if it is done in the course of attendance declared lawful by Article 16—

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

(b) by a trade union official whose attendance is lawful by virtue of paragraph (2)(b) of that Article.

(6) In paragraphs (3)(a) and (4)(a)—

(a) references to the supply of goods or services between two persons are references to the supply of goods or services by one to the other in pursuance of a contract between them subsisting at the time of the secondary action; and

(b) references to directly preventing or disrupting the supply are references to preventing or disrupting it otherwise than by means of preventing or disrupting the supply of goods or services by or to any other person.

(7) For the purposes of this Article an employer who is a member of an employers' association which is a party to a trade dispute shall by virtue of his membership be regarded as a party to the dispute if he is represented in the dispute by the association, but not otherwise.