Council in wrong over cash offer
A unanimous employment tribunal has ordered Bromley Council to pay more than £64,000 in total compensation to 18 council workers belonging to public services union UNISON, after the council acted unlawfully: Bromley offered cash incentives to staff to sign contracts agreeing that their terms and conditions would no longer be governed by collective bargaining.
Under section 145B of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, it is against the law for an employer to make an offer to an employee where the “sole or main purpose” of the offer is to achieve a result whereby their terms and conditions are no longer governed by collective bargaining. Breach of section 145B carries fixed compensation of £3,600 per claimant.
Bromley Council wrote letters to employees offering a cash inducement of £200 to employees to sign new contract terms removing collective pay bargaining with unions under the National Joint Council for Local Government Services framework, and replacing it with a localised pay award. The tribunal ruled that the sole or main purpose of the council’s offer was to remove the terms from national collective bargaining.
UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis described the case as a “significant victory” for members who were “effectively coerced into signing away their employment rights”.
The case should send a signal to other councils that they can’t simply withdraw from collective bargaining “by going behind the union’s back and making these types of offers,” he added.