Workplace Report (February 2002)

Features: Law at work

Industrial action

Workers on personal contracts have the right to take industrial action against their employers with the same legal protection as applies to other workers, according to a recent Court of Appeal ruling.

In a case supported by the T&G general union against Associated British Ports the court ruled that those piloting ships down the Humber estuary were "workers". This meant that they came within the definition of a lawful trade dispute, one between "workers and their employers". The ruling is important because it emphasises that employers cannot get round the legal protection by giving their workers a false employment status.


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