Under these requirements, the conservative party would not have gained power in the last election; moreover, since the end of the Second World War there has only been one election where the winning party managed to obtain 40% of the popular vote, which was the 1951 election where the Labour Party won (Warwick, 2015). In the last election, out of the 330 Conservative MPs, 274 did not manage to gain the support of 40% of their electorate (Warwick, 2015). Likewise, when Boris Johnson stood as Mayor of London, he failed to obtain 40% of the total electorate (Warwick, 2015). Therefore, it may be argued that this requirement has been incorporated in order to minimise the potential for employees to vote for industrial action. For trade unions, this means the organisations will need to encourage increased participation in boats, with absence effectively being a vote against action.
The implication here is a greater need for unions to reach out and communicate with all eligible voting members, even moving towards marketing campaigns to encourage voting, even before looking at the issues. Theoretically, a 100% vote for action by those participating in a ballot may not to be actionable, if they did not make up 50% of the eligible electorate. This change clearly benefits employers, as they are less likely to face an actionable vote.
Likewise, to avoid a vote in favour of action, employers no longer need to persuade employees to vote against action, they can simply encourage them to abstain. The law now creates a bias, where staying votes are effectively cast against strike action (Ewing and Hendry, 2016).
The requirements regarding the way industrial action is taken have also changed. Prior to the act, unions were obliged to give employers seven days notice of action, this has now increased to a default of 14 days, with the exception of seven days where the employer agrees that this is sufficient notice (Trade Union Act 2016).
Once a vote had taken place, under the old statutes, union action had to take place within four weeks, or eight weeks with the employers permission, but action could then be taken indefinitely at any time based on the ballot results, as long as the dispute is continuing. However, this is no longer the case, with the new act allowing the mandate to expire after six months, with the exception where employers agree allowing it to last up to 9 months, after which time the union will need to seek a new ballot (Trade Union Act 2016). This expiry of the ballot means that unions are unable to take action based on historic ballots, effectively limiting the potential period for future action.
For the trade unions there is a curtailment of their ability to use past mandates, which may be a significant constraint. There are also arguments that historic ballots in favour of action may not always reflect the current views of the members, and there is a potential to abuse historic mandates granted through a ballot.
It is known where action is undertaken a significant period after the initial ballot, there may be less commitment by the employees towards the action as the initial feelings may have subsided (Wrigley, 2012). However this s viewed, it increases the pressure on trade unions, with the expiry of mandates, and may also provide barriers as there are always costs associated with a new ballot taking place.
The act also mandates that the government should commission an independent review to consider the potential for electronic balloting (Trade Union Act 2016). In the past there have been pressures to implement electronic balloting, as a way of increasing the potential vote, and reducing barriers to eligible members. With the requirements for at least 50% of the eligible members to participate in a vote for it to be binding, and 40% to vote in favour of action in essential public service organisations, it may be argued that the ability to restrict or place barriers to members voting benefits the employer.
Therefore, it is notable that while there is a commitment to commission an independent report onto electronic voting, the act does not provide for any commitment to implement this balloting process. This, once again, appears to favour the employer over the trade union.
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