Employment Relations Act 1999

Employment Relations Act 1999

1999 CHAPTER 26

Commentary on Sections

Leave for family reasons

Section 17: Collective agreements: detriment and dismissal

210. This section provides powers for the Secretary of State to make regulations subject to the affirmative resolution procedure to protect workers from detriment and dismissal arising from a refusal to enter into a individual contract which includes terms different from those in a collective agreement which would otherwise apply. Subsection (4) limits what is to be taken as constituting a detriment for the purposes of this section. The Government intends to consult on draft regulations before they are made.

• Collective agreement is defined in section 178 of the 1992 Act as any agreement or arrangement made by or on behalf of one or more trade unions and one or more employers or employers’ organisations and relating to one or more of (a) terms and conditions of employment, or the physical conditions in which any workers are required to work; (b) engagement or non-engagement, or termination or suspension of employment or the duties of employment, of one or more workers; (c) allocation of work or the duties of employment between workers or groups of workers; (d) matters of discipline; (e) a workers’ membership or non-membership of a trade union; (f) facilities for officials of trade unions; and (g) machinery for negotiation or consultation, and other procedures, relating to any of the above matters, including the recognition by employers or employers’ associations of the right of a trade union to represent workers in such negotiation or consultation or in the carrying out of such procedures.