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Employers need to consult unions on changes to things like working hours and holiday pay, according to a Court of Appeal ruling.
Until now, unions only had the right to be consulted where the law required this, for example, in TUPE regulations where employees transfer from one employer to another, and in redundancy cases.
UNISON brought the case to the Court of Appeal and says its ruling, that unions should be consulted over collective redundancies, and generally, where the terms and conditions or rights at work of those they represent are affected, will benefit thousands of employees.
The ruling is linked to a case involving parks police who were made redundant by the London Borough of Wandsworth. The Court of Appeal ruled that UNISON had the right to be consulted by Wandsworth over the job losses.
UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “This means that employees in any workplace where there’s a union will now benefit from greater protection at work.
“The message to bosses is they will have to treat their staff more fairly over pay and working conditions. If they fail to consult unions then they will be acting unlawfully and could be taken to court.”