Picketing

Teddington Cuddlesworth

Can the staff of one business picket outside the main entrance to a shopping district where it is effecting several businesses?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

GM228

Teddington Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Can the staff of one business picket outside the main entrance to a shopping district where it is effecting several businesses?

You can "attend at, or where that is not practicable, at the approaches to, a place where their employer works or carries on business" for the purposes of a peaceful picket.

If it isn't practicable to picket at the actual location of the business then yes you can picket at the approach to the business (i.e the entrance to the shopping centre for example).

You can also picket at another business who isn't a party to a dispute if it is"reasonable for those who are so attending to believe at the commencement of their attendance and throughout the continuance of their attendance that that employer has directly assisted their employer who is a party to the trade dispute for the purpose of frustrating the strike or other industrial action".

Victor

The shopping centre probably won't allow them to picket on the shopping centre grounds.

Many people go to shopping centres to shop at the anchor stores - supermarkets and department stores - and the smaller shops are dependent on this passing trade for business.

The loss of trade at the smaller shops is incidental, but likely substantial. However, if the picketing occurred at the door of the anchor store and no customer passed the pickets going to the smaller shops, loss of trade to the smaller shops would be almost as substantial.

Teddington Cuddlesworth

Thanks for the input everyone.

It's effecting us massively.
We had expected to take 2300+ today (with no picket) and as of now we've only taken 215.

I'm forecasting to be down about 1400/1500 by the close of business.

L1011

Can't say you'd be any less hit if the picket was at the doors of the shop itself - years back when working with pharmacy systems I saw the Dunnes strike impact (and pharmacies are destination shops in and of themselves) and even situations where all stores opened out to a stripmall and the picket was only at the Dunnes the pharmacy would be way down. People avoid pickets, basically.