UNISON
© Rawpixel via Getty Images
UNISON delivers at the Supreme Court and in the workplace
April saw UNISON win yet another landmark court case , securing vital protections for strikers . At the same time , health workers and occupational therapy staff met in Brighton for UNISON ’ s annual Health Conference .
Winning in the court
Judges have told employers they will no longer be able to discipline their staff for taking part in legal strike action in a UK Supreme Court ruling , thanks to UNISON .
The union , which took the case on behalf of care worker Fiona Mercer , says the government must now act quickly to change the law and ensure no other employees are treated unfairly .
The judgment follows a two-day hearing in December . UNISON took the case to the Supreme Court to overturn an earlier Court of Appeal decision . The union had argued this had left the UK in breach of international law and striking employees without proper protection .
The Supreme Court judges were scathing of the government ’ s failure to provide the minimum protection UK workers should have been granted , says UNISON .
UK law prevents employers from sacking employees who take legal strike action , but until today , it offered no protection to anyone subsequently targeted for walking out in a dispute .
Fiona had originally taken a case against her then employer , Alternative Futures Group ( AFG ), a charity based in the north west of England , to an employment tribunal in 2020 .
She had been involved in a dispute over AFG ’ s plans to cut payments to care staff who did sleepin shifts . Fiona ’ s employer wasn ’ t happy , singled her out , suspended her and barred her from going into work or contacting colleagues during the action .
Fiona ’ s case wound up at an Employment Appeal Tribunal ( EAT ) in 2021 , which found in her favour . It said UK law must protect her from being victimised for going on strike .
That should have been it , says UNISON , as the charity had then decided it wasn ’ t prepared to proceed any further . But the then business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng intervened and took the case to the Court of Appeal , which subsequently decided to reverse the EAT decision in March 2022 .
Back to where it started , UNISON sought permission on behalf of Fiona to take the case to the highest court in the land , and this led to the judgment handed down last month .
UNISON General Secretary Christina McAnea said : ‘ This is the most important industrial action case for decades . It ’ s a victory for every employee who might one day want to challenge something bad or unfair their employer has done .
36 OTnews May 2024