Six employees asked for an interim injunction to prevent their employers terminating their contracts of employment in the context of an industrial dispute. Their union had been threatening to take industrial action. The plaintiffs asserted that they should be regarded as individuals, separate from their union but the respondents asserted that the facts and circumstances showed that, in threatening to take industrial action, the union was acting as their agent. The issue for the court was whether or not interim injunction should be granted not whether or not the union was acting as agent of the plaintiffs.
Held:
Stephenson LJ said: ‘The argument that this second master of the men is also in some respects their agent will need evidence to support it’
Geoffrey Lane LJ said: ‘It is not possible, for instance, to say how far, if at all, the union may have been acting as agent for individual members, in dealing with the employers.’
Stephenson LJ, Geoffrey Lane LJ
[1975] IRLR 90
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – The Highland Council v TGWU and Unison EAT 3-Jun-2008
EAT EQUAL PAY ACT: Equal value
Equal Pay claims. Whether letters sent to local authority employers by unions prior to coming into force of the statutory grievance procedures met the requirements of regulation . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 16 October 2021; Ref: scu.276941
