Industrial relations
Proud member of Ius Laboris
Learn morechevron_right
As strikes can bring businesses to a standstill, expert IR advice is critical.
Our team of experienced industrial relations lawyers partner with you to develop your labour relations strategies. From advising on requests for trade union recognition to mitigating the impact of strikes, our expertise enables you to manage complex challenges.
Our services
Trade union recognition
A request for trade union recognition can be unsettling for any business. With only a few days to respond, deciding how to move towards the best outcome is a real challenge. The same is true when you come to renegotiate a collective agreement.
Our team provides practical and strategic advice. We’ll guide you through all stages of a process, from responding to a trade union’s request, to conducting negotiations and defending any application made to the Central Arbitration Committee. We have also won appeals over trade union recognition at all levels up to the Supreme Court.
We’ve helped businesses to conclude modern, light-touch collective agreements, as well as to conduct campaigns following which employees ultimately voted against union recognition once they understood its implications.
Collective bargaining
The cost-of-living crisis has resulted in employers facing some of the toughest collective bargaining for over 40 years. Added to this is a recent landmark UK Supreme Court decision strengthening trade unions’ rights and recent EU Directives potentially requiring more engagement on the collective bargaining front.
Our team combines industrial relations acumen with technical legal expertise, enabling us to help you with all aspects of managing trade union relationships. We also have significant experience defending Employment Tribunal claims that employers have bypassed collective bargaining with their recognised trade union.
Industrial action
Our experience of advising employers on all aspects of industrial action means that we can help you with:
- Union balloting and industrial action notices
- Picketing
- Withholding of pay
- Use of agency workers and other forms of contingency planning
- Responding to unions’ leverage campaign tactics
- Applications for strike injunctions
European works councils
When it comes to advising employers on all aspects of European works councils (EWCs), our expertise is unrivalled.
We’ve acted for employers in most of the cases regarding EWCs in the UK courts, right up to the Supreme Court, as well as the first EWC appeal case in Ireland.
We can support you at every stage, from responding to initial information requests through to setting up an EWC via a Special Negotiation Body process, and advising on the operation of EWCs.
