After a long and troubled passage through Parliament, the Trade Union Bill received the Royal Assent on 4 May. However, it is still to be decided when it will actually pass into law.
The main points of the Act are:
The Trade Union Act will ensure industrial action only ever goes ahead when there has been a ballot turnout of at least 50%. In important public services, including in the health, education, transport, border security and fire sectors, an additional threshold of 40% of support to take industrial action from all eligible members must be met for action to be legal. During the Parliamentary process, the government agreed to commission an independent review into electronic balloting within 6 months. Requiring a clearer description of the trade dispute and the planned industrial action on the ballot paper, so that all union members are clear what they are voting for Ensuring that payroll deductions for trade union subscriptions are only administered where the cost is not funded by the public Creating a transparent process for trade union subscriptions that allows new members to make an active choice of paying into political funds Giving more powers to the Certification Officer to ensure new and existing rules are always followed by unions Reducing the burden on taxpayers by ensuring that payroll deductions for trade union subscriptions are only administered where the cost is not funded by the public and ensuring transparency and greater accountability relating to the use of public money for facility timeWhat is not included in the Act is the clause taking away the right of employers to refuse to make deductions from payroll of union dues. This was removed previously during the transit of the Bill through the House of Lords.
