Trade Union Law Since 1979

Abstract

Abstract Allan Flanders once suggested that ‘the tradition of voluntarism cannot be legislated againsf (1974: 365). By voluntarism he meant the collective bargaining system that had developed over the century in the UK with scant help or hindrance from the law (Kahn-Freund’s ‘collective laissez faire’ (1959) ). His judgement was made when the Industrial Relations Act, an ambitious labour code introduced at a stroke, was nearing the end of its short, blighted life. The Act’s failure reinforced a then conventional academic wisdom that legislation was unhelpful in reforming Britain’s troubled system. As Flanders himself stated ‘it is clear that the law is a very inadequate, dangerous and dubious means for trying to modify any established modes of conduct of trade unions’ (1974: 365).

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