2015 ITUC Global Rights Index - United Kingdom

2015 ITUC Global Rights Index Rating: 3

Part III of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 introduces new regulations on union membership registers. From 2015, unions will be required to provide the Certification Officer (CO), a statutory agency with responsibility for registering and regulating independent trade unions, with an annual membership audit certificate (MAC) alongside their annual membership returns. Unions with more than 10,000 members must appoint an independent assurer to complete the MAC. The assurer must report whether a union's systems are adequate to ensure that -as far as is reasonably practicable – their membership register is accurate and up to date.

The Act provides the CO with new powers to access and retain registers of members' names and addresses when s/he 'thinks there is a good reason to do. The CO will also have the power to access other documents which s/he considers may be relevant, including correspondence between a member and the union.

The TUC is concerned that the new provisions may deter individuals from joining trade unions and exercising their rights to representation at work. Many individuals choose not to disclose their trade union membership to their employer or to the state. Some individuals will have a legitimate fear of blacklisting. Others may fear that they will be victimised by their current or future employer.

The legislation represents a serious interference with individuals' rights to privacy and trade unions' rights to freedom of association. The new legislation may also interfere with the ability of unions to organise industrial action. It is anticipated that employers will seek to rely on information provided on audit certificates in applications for interim injunctions in an attempt to prevent or delay industrial action.

The ITUC Global Rights Index Ratings:

1 // Irregular violation of rights
Collective labour rights are generally guaranteed. Workers can freely associate and defend their rights collectively with the government and/or companies and can improve their working conditions through collective bargaining. Violations against workers are not absent but do not occur on a regular basis.

2 // Repeated violation of rights
Countries with a rating of 2 have slightly weaker collective labour rights than those with the rating 1. Certain rights have come under repeated attacks by governments and/or companies and have undermined the struggle for better working conditions.

3 // Regular violation of rights
Governments and/or companies are regularly interfering in collective labour rights or are failing to fully guarantee important aspects of these rights. There are deficiencies in laws and/or certain practices which make frequent violations possible.

4 // Systematic violation of rights
Workers in countries with the rating 4 have reported systematic violations. The government and/or companies are engaged in serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers putting fundamental rights under threat.

5 // No guarantee of rights
Countries with the rating of 5 are the worst countries in the world to work in. While the legislation may spell out certain rights workers have effectively no access to these rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labour practices.

5+ // No guarantee of rights due to the breakdown of the rule of law
Workers in countries with the rating 5+ have equally limited rights as countries with the rating 5. However, in countries with the rating 5+ this is linked to dysfunctional institutions as a result of internal conflict and/or military occupation. In such cases, the country is assigned the rating of 5+ by default.