Illegal Union

Zatman

Is it illegal for a company to not let employees join a Union? As i have heard my job bans it

Robbo

It's illegal for them to prevent you joining a union or fire you because you join a union.

It's perfectly alright for them to not acknowledge the union.

gerrycollins

it's in the constitution that a person/company has the right to associate or disassociate themselves to a union.

Mountjoy Mugger

You're entitled to join a Trade Union.

mikemac

But can the company say they only want to deal with one union?

Like I join one union and my teammate joins another and now we want the company to deal with two unions. Oh, and we're doing the exact same job

leeroybrown

The company have the right to decide if they're willing to recognise a particular trade union or not. Quite a lot of companies might recognise one union for the purposes of representation and collective bargaining but not deal with others.

ixoy

They can ignore the union and indeed I've never been in a job where any union has had a presence. I believe IT companies, in general, tend to distance themselves from union politics.

Godge

Irish freedom of association laws work both ways. There is nothing to stop an employee joining a union or not joining a union. However, there is nothing to force an employer to talk to a union or not talk to a union.

Wishbone Ash

mikemac wrote: »

But can the company say they only want to deal with one union?

Like I join one union and my teammate joins another and now we want the company to deal with two unions. Oh, and we're doing the exact same job

That's perfectly legal. There are four different trade unions in my workplace (representing similarly qualified staff) but my employer only officially recognises two of them.

They are not legally obliged to recognise any.

Ryanair, for example, do not recognise any trade unions even though their staff may be union members.