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We want to hear your employment
law issues. Send us your questions
to feature here next month.
Email: chris.beck@markallengroup.com
A better approach would be
for you to instruct employees
to make sure that they use
Microsoft Teams for purely
work-related conversations
and that such interactions will
be monitored. Staff can be
encouraged to use other forms
of personal social media for any
conversations unconnected to
the workplace.
As lockdown came into
effect, my employer
furloughed a number of
employees, and asked the rest
of us to update our contracts,
essentially putting in a
future-proof clause around
furloughing. As our in-house
union rep, I tend to run any
contractual changes past them
before agreeing to anything,
advising that colleagues hold
off until I’ve had the OK. I
received an irate phone call
from my manager asking me
to ‘lay off with the union stuff’
and just sign the contract. Can
managers do this?
By ‘future-proofing’ I assume you
mean introducing a contractual
clause into an employee’s
contract of employment which
allows the employer to impose
periods of either short-term
working or layoffs. It is easy to
understand why your employer
is seeking to do this.
If an employer needs to
change a contract, the first step
is to talk with employees or
employee representatives such
as trade union representatives.
Consulting with trade unions
openly and honestly can help
employers to have meaningful
discussions with employees and
get a better understanding of
any concerns they may have. For
the purposes of this answer I am
assuming that there are
no formal collective agreements,
but you are recognised by
your employer as a trade
union representative on a
part-time basis.
The law clearly sets out
the role of a trade union
representative and how they are
protected from any detriment
in the course of their duties.
These duties include talking
to members about workplace
issues, advising them and
keeping them informed of
the latest developments,
representing members who
have problems and negotiating
with employers. As a union
representative, you should be
consulted about the proposed
contract change, talk to
members about the change and
negotiate with the employer.
Therefore, you are entitled to
time off your normal duties to
carry out trade union duties.
It is not clear whether the
phone call was to encourage you
personally to sign the contract
or dissuade you from raising
objections on behalf of others.
If the latter, then you could
consider raising a complaint
with either HR or a more
senior manager, as this type of
interference is clearly unfair and
seems to be designed to dissuade
you from carrying out your
union duties. If this conversation
was followed up by more direct
action such as a threat to demote
you or reduce your pay, then that
would be unlawful.
Put simply you are protected
from being subjected to a
detriment for taking part in
trade union activities: in this
case assisting your members and
negotiating contractual changes.
ACAS is also very helpful in
mediating this type of conflict.
Know your law...
Trade union
representatives
are entitled to
reasonable paid time off to
do their union work, as long
as the union is both independent
and officially recognised by
the employer
www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk 15
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