02 February 2016

Professor Keith Ewing and John Hendy QC submitted written evidence on the Trade Union Bill to the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) in November 2015.

The legal experts provided detailed evidence as to how the Bill breaches international law, explaining:

”In our view, the Bill (with the important check off amendment introduced in Public Bill Committee) is incompatible with a wide range of human rights obligations established in a number of treaties to which the United Kingdom is a party. These include ILO Conventions 87, 98 and 151; the European Social Charter of 1961; and the European Convention on Human Rights.”

This, they added, should be seen in the context of the increased regulation of UK trade unions since the 1970s.

Ewing and Hendy later provided supplementary evidence to the JCHR relating specifically to the introduction of new picketing provisions in the Bill.

Click here to read the full submission here