How a union gets recognised through the Industrial Court, the 10% and 40% tests that still apply in Northern Ireland, your rights as a union member, the 7-day interim relief deadline and time off.
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Check My Union Rights →Workers in Northern Ireland who want their union recognised by their employer, and union members who have been treated badly or dismissed because of the union.
Your employer can agree to recognise a union voluntarily.
For statutory recognition, the union must first make a request to your employer. It must clearly identify the union and the bargaining unit, and state that it is made under the Employment Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1999.
Your employer has 10 working days to respond, starting with the first working day after it receives the request. If it says it is willing to negotiate, there are 20 working days to agree the bargaining unit and recognition, which can be extended by agreement. The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) may help.
If your employer rejects the request, does not respond in time, or no agreement is reached, the union can apply to the Industrial Court.
The Industrial Court checks, among other tests, whether at least 10% of the proposed bargaining unit are union members, and whether a majority of the workers in it are likely to support recognition.
A union can be recognised without a ballot where more than 50% of the bargaining unit are union members.
If there is a ballot, the union is recognised only if a majority of those voting, and at least 40% of the workers in the bargaining unit, vote in favour.
If the union is recognised, it can bargain for the workers in the bargaining unit on pay, hours and holidays.
You have the right to join or not join a union, to leave or stay a member, and to belong to more than one union.
Your employer is not allowed to offer you a benefit to change your decision, or threaten to penalise you if you do not. No employer or employment agency may require you to join a union, leave a union, or be a member of a particular union in order to start work.
If you are a union member, your employer must not dismiss you or select you for redundancy because you took part, or wanted to take part, in union activities at an appropriate time, or used or wanted to use your union's services.
Your employer also must not treat you unfairly to put you off joining a union or taking part in its activities. Unfair treatment includes, for example, refusing you promotion or training, or withholding a pay increase.
If you are not a union member, you do not have to pay a union subscription, or let your employer deduct one from your pay, and you cannot be dismissed or selected for redundancy for refusing.
If your employer does treat you unfairly for these reasons, you may be able to complain to an industrial tribunal.
As well as an unfair dismissal claim, you can apply to the Industrial Tribunal for an interim relief order.
The application must reach the tribunal before the end of the 7 days after the date your employment ended.
If you say you were dismissed for being, or wanting to become, a union member, or for union activities, you must also send the tribunal, within the same 7 days, a certificate signed by an authorised official of your union. It must say that you were, or proposed to become, a member on the date of the dismissal, and that there appear to be reasonable grounds for thinking this was the reason for your dismissal. Contact your union straight away.
If you are an employee and an official or elected representative of a union your employer recognises, you can take reasonable paid time off for union duties, including negotiating, accompanying members at disciplinary or grievance hearings, and training for your union work. You are paid what you normally earn.
Union learning representatives can take reasonable paid time off if the union has told the employer in writing that they are a learning representative, and the union is recognised.
Employees who are members of a recognised union can take a reasonable amount of unpaid time off for union activities, such as workplace meetings about negotiations, meeting a full-time union official, or voting in a union election.
Your union: for recognition requests, Industrial Court applications and the interim relief certificate.
Labour Relations Agency (LRA): 03300 555 300. Early conciliation, and free, confidential and impartial advice on employment rights, including trade union recognition. The LRA does not advise on whether your own claim will succeed.
Industrial Court: 028 9025 7599. Decides statutory recognition applications in Northern Ireland.
Free advice is also available from Advice NI.
Advice NI: 0800 915 4604
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