Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992

Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992
Act of Parliament
Long titleAn Act to consolidate the enactments relating to collective labour relations, that is to say, to trade unions, employers' associations, industrial relations and industrial action.
Citation1992 c. 52
Introduced byLord Mackay of Clashfern, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (Lords)
Territorial extent England and Wales; Scotland; Northern Ireland
Dates
Royal assent16 July 1992
Other legislation
Repeals/revokes
Amended bySeafarers (Transnational Information and Consultation, Collective Redundancies and Insolvency Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/26)
Status: Amended
Text of statute as originally enacted
Text of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (c. 52) is a UK Act of Parliament which regulates United Kingdom labour law. The act applies in full in England and Wales and in Scotland, and partially in Northern Ireland.[1]

The law contained in the act (TULRCA 1992) has existed in more or less the same form since the Trade Disputes Act 1906. Underneath a mass of detail, four main principles can be found in the main parts of the act. The act's effect is to

  • define trade unions and state they are the subjects of legal rights and duties
  • protect the right of workers to organise into, or leave, a union without suffering discrimination or detriment
  • provide a framework for a union to engage in collective bargaining for better workplace or business standards with employers
  • protect the right of workers in a union to take action, including strike action and industrial action short of a strike, to support and defend their interests, when reasonable notice is given, and when that action is "in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute"
  1. ^ E. McGaughey, A Casebook on Labour Law (Hart 2019); chs. 8–10