Injunctions,Cyanamid,and the Corrosion of the Right to Strike in the UK

Abstract

This paper critically reviews a number of recent English court decisions on the award of interim injunctions against strikes, granted on the grounds of breach of various procedural requirements contained in Part V of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. It is argued that the jurisprudential approach followed by English courts is at odds with the emerging human rights nature of the right to strike, as developed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The paper calls domestic judges to abandon the traditional, American Cyanamid-based, test typically used in awarding interlocutory injunctions in industrial action cases, in favour of a more human rights-attuned ‘proportionality test’.