Chapter 3 Part A

1
Chapter 3 Part A

• Collective Industrial Relations Law

2
Introduction

• Sources of law
• Common law
• Legislation
• Bunreacht na hÉireann 1937 (the Irish
  Constitution)
• International law
• EU Treaties, EU Directives, etc.
• European Council European Convention on Human
  Rights and Fundamental Freedom
• UN International Labour Organisation

3
Common Law

• Common Law
• Is judge-made law
• Key principle
• restraint of trade is illegal
• Collective nature of trade unions
• Has conflicted with individually based common-law
  system.

4
Pre 1825

• Series of anti-combinations acts passed by Irish
  legislature
• Failed for a number of reasons
• Difficult to enforce due to secrecy of
  combinations
• Social pressure on employers
• Scarce skills possessed by craftsmen made
  employers reluctant to use the law.

5
Repeal of Anti-combination Acts

• 1824/1825 Combinations Acts 17991800 repealed
  and new legislation enacted
• Reasons for repeal
• Ineffectiveness of the acts said to have
  worsened relations between master and workmen.
• Argued that, if removed, the combinations would
  die out.
• Resulted in trade unions being quasi-legal bodies
  
• Still subject to laws restraining activities
  (negotiating, striking) and the taking of oaths.

6
After repeal of 1799/1800 Acts

• The Tolpuddle Martyrs, 1834
• Six Dorset farm labourers joined the
  short-lived Grand National Consolidated Union
• Union for the unskilled
• Transported to Australia for 7 years for taking
  an oath of secrecy
• Found to be illegal and seditious
• Eventually pardoned and repatriated, 1838.

7
Criminal Law and Collective IR

• Unions still subject to common law of criminal
  conspiracy
• Any action undertaken in a trade dispute with
  another person was illegal, even if the act done
  by one person was not
• Pickets, strikes and other activities were
  subject to the criminal law.

8
Campaign for reform

• Liberal Party under Gladstone introduced (1871)
  Trade Union Act in return for electoral support
• Legalised existence of trade unions, but did not
  give status of corporate entities (right to sue
  and be sued).
• As amended, governs the legal position of trade
  unions in Ireland today.
• Early seeds of voluntarist system
• Allowed trade unions to exist within the law, but
  prevented legal regulation of their affairs.

9
Criminal Law and Collective IR (contd)

• Conservative Party under Disraeli introduced
  amended legislation in return for electoral
  support.
• Removed law of criminal conspiracy from trade
  disputes.
• Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act (1875)
• Activities of unions immune from Law of Criminal
  Conspiracy
• Met demand of unions
• They wanted nothing from the law other than that
  it leave them alone.

10
The Civil Law

• Employers resorted to civil conspiracy
• under law of tort (a civil wrong)
• Quinn v. Leatham 1901 (Belfast)
• Workers association persuaded other workers not
  to supply Quinn during a trade dispute
• Combination to injure unlawful conspiracy
• Judgement against Quinn
• Treasurer of the Association, not the
  Association itself.

11
Taff Vale v. Amalgamated Society of Railway
Servants (ASR) 1901

• Strike protesting dismissal of a signalman on the
  Taff Vale Railway Company by members of ASR
• Workers brought in to replace striking workers
• Richard Bell (unions general secretary)
  persuaded them to breach a third-party employment
  contract
• Company sought injunction and damages against
  union.
• Judgement
• Union was a legal entity and could be sued in its
  own name
• Potentially detrimental to unions
• They turned to the political process to overturn
  precedents set.

12
Trade Disputes Act 1906

• Amended civil law
• Introduced by Liberals in return for electoral
  support
• Gave immunity from tort of civil conspiracy
• Protected peaceful picketing
• Applied to union members
• Where they were acting in contemplation or
  furtherance of a trade dispute (The Golden
  Formula)
• Blanket protection to unions as an organisation
• Could not be sued under law of tort
• Not limited by Golden Formula.

13
Collective IR Law, post-1906

• Voluntarist
• Did not confer rights
• Employers
• Did not have to recognise or negotiate with trade
  unions
• Injunctions
• Introduced a degree of legalism.

14
Union Funds and Political Activity

• Osborne v. Amalgamated Society of Railway
  Servants 1911
• Unions could not use funds for political
  purposes.
• Trade Union Act 1913
• Trade union funds allowed to be used for
  political purposes
• There must be an easy opt-out option for union
  members.

15
Collective Legislation after 1922
16
Collective Legislation after 1922 (contd)
17
Collective Legislation after 1922 (contd)
18
Collective Legislation after 1922 (contd)
19
Collective Legislation after 1922