Our aim in this article is to analyse the provisions of the Trade Union Act 2016 that deal with pre-strike ballots and picketing. We also consider Government proposals to legislate in respect of protests associated with industrial action (‘leverage action’), which were abandoned in favour of plans to amend the Code of Practice on Picketing. We note the suggestion made by several commentators and Opposition politicians that the Government might have intended with these changes to make it significantly more difficult for trade unions and workers to exercise their rights to take industrial action, and to engage in forms of protest associated with industrial action. Examining the stated policy aims of Government, and available evidence which speaks to those policy aims and to the likely impact of the new rules, we argue that the freedom of workers and trade unions to participate in and organise industrial action has indeed been narrowed very considerably by this Act; further, that the case for amending the existing legal framework was not at all well made.

中文翻译：

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罢工前投票、纠察和抗议：通过后门禁止工业行动？

我们在本文中的目的是分析 2016 年《工会法》中有关罢工前投票和纠察的规定。我们还考虑政府提议就与工业行动（“杠杆行动”）相关的抗议进行立法，这些提议被放弃以支持修订纠察行动守则的计划。我们注意到一些评论员和反对派政客提出的建议，即政府可能打算通过这些变化使工会和工人行使其采取工业行动的权利以及参与与工业相关的抗议形式变得更加困难。行动。审查政府既定的政策目标，以及说明这些政策目标和新规则可能产生的影响的现有证据，我们认为，该法案确实极大地限制了工人和工会参与和组织工业行动的自由；此外，修改现有法律框架的理由根本不充分。