Right Not to be Subject to a Detriment for Participating in Industrial Action
The ERA 2025 addresses the Supreme Court declaration in Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Mercer [2022] UKSC 12 that subjecting a worker to a detriment for exercising the right to take part in industrial action is incompatible with the right to freedom of association under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The ERA 2025 introduces statutory protection for workers not to suffer a detriment short of dismissal, where the sole or main purpose of the employer is to prevent or deter the worker from taking part in industrial action or penalise the worker for doing so. This protection is achieved by way of the introduction of a new section 236A to TULRCA, prohibiting the imposition of “detriments of a prescribed description”, the detail of which is to be set out in regulations following consultation. This consultation was launched on 26 February and closes on 23 April 2025.
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