Court delivers vital union rights ruling

Last month the NUJ journalists' and RMT transport unions won a major victory at the European Court of Human Rights after a long legal battle to prevent employers from discriminating against trade union members.

The court ruled that the practice of requiring employees to sign personal contracts giving up their rights to collectively agreed terms and conditions is in breach of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Speaking after the court's ruling, former Daily Mail journalist Dave Wilson, one of those who took the case said that he felt "privileged to have been able to protect basic freedoms and strengthen workplace rights". When the Daily Mail derecognised the NUJ in 1990 Wilson had refused to sign a new contract. In the following years his annual pay rises were lower than those awarded to staff who had signed the new contracts.

Although the unions won a Court of Appeal case in 1993, they then lost the case at the House of Lords in 1995. In the meantime the then Conservative government had changed the law clearing the way for such anti-union tactics.

TUC general secretary John Monks says that the TUC is now calling on the government to change the law "so that workers are able to have their voice heard through their union without suffering worse conditions".

There can be no appeal against the judgement as the court's ruling on European human rights issues is final. As a consequence the government will have to amend the existing UK law to comply.