CLARIFICATION OF STRIKE ACTION

CLARIFICATION OF STRIKE ACTION
We have set out below some guidance on some of the points that have been raised about the implications of CWU members taking strike action.
Picketing
The Code of Practice on Picketing contains some useful points on the right to picket and the limitation.
(Paragraph 10) – Picketing commonly involves persuading workers to break, or interfere with the performance of their contracts of employment by not going into work. Picketing can also disrupt the business of the employer who is being picketed by interfering with the performance of a commercial contract which the employer has with a customer or supplier.
(Paragraph 31) – The law allows pickets to seek to explain their case to those entering or leaving the picketed premises, and/or to ask them not to enter or leave the premises where the dispute is taking place. This may be done by speaking to people, or it may involve the distribution of leaflets or the carrying of banners or placards putting the picket’s case. In all cases, however, any such activity must be carried out peacefully.
Agency workers including Angard cannot be forced or compelled to cross a picket line. If they take an individual conscious decision not to cross a picket line they will lose pay and there is a risk that the company may not call upon them again.
On a day of strike action agency workers cannot be asked to replace the role of a striking worker.
Non-CWU members who are of an RMG grade covered by the legal ballot, have every right to partake in the legal strike action, if they wish to do so.
The law is neutral for those on fixed term contracts and doesn’t increase or decrease their protections in comparison to other workers. A person on a fixed term contract may have a claim if the company stopped their contract due to strike action.
An Acting Manager whose substantive grade is OPG and is a member of the CWU and has therefore been legally balloted, is able through their individual choice to take strike action on the day(s) this is called, whether this is working in their substantive grade or any acting role. Where CWU members who are Acting Managers feel they are being intimidated/harassed into not supporting the strike action this should immediately be brought to the attention of the local CWU Branch.