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Picketing

When workers involved in industrial action stage a protest at or near a workplace to increase support for their cause, this is called picketing. Workers who are involved in picketing are called pickets.

The pickets usually tell other workers about the dispute they are involved in and the industrial action being taken. They may also try to persuade other workers not to work at all or not to perform some of their normal work duties.

• Taking part in industrial action

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has a Code of Practice on picketing which explains the law in more detail and gives advice on how it should be organised. The advice in the Code of Practice is taken into account by the courts when they decide legal cases on picketing.

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Picket lines

A picket line is the description given to those who gather outside or near the entrance to a workplace. They could include striking workers, workers locked out by their employer and trade union representatives.

The targets of a picket line’s activities may be:

• non-striking colleagues
• substitute workers (eg workers who work for the same employer, brought in from another workplace to cover for striking workers)
• workers who work for other employers (eg lorry drivers bringing supplies to the employer in dispute)

Persuading workers employed by other employers

If you join the picket line outside or near your workplace, you are allowed to try peacefully to persuade workers employed by other employers not involved in the dispute

• to support you
• not to cross the picket line

For example, you might try to persuade lorry drivers from a different employer not to deliver supplies or collect goods.

Normally doing this would be unlawful because it would be asking the other workers to take secondary action (action by workers of an employer not involved in the dispute). However it is lawful to do this when you are picketing.

• Taking part in industrial action

The law and picketing

The criminal law applies to pickets as it does to everyone else. It is therefore a criminal offence for pickets to:

• use threatening or abusive words or behave in a threatening manner towards others passing close to the picket line
• deliberately get in the way of other people or vehicles attempting to enter or leave premises being picketed
• possess offensive weapons
• damage property, either deliberately or recklessly
• cause or threaten to cause a breach of the peace
• obstruct a public highway, such as a road adjacent to the premises being picketed
• prevent, or attempt to prevent, a police officer from carrying out their duties

There may be police present at a picket line. The police can take any measures they feel necessary to ensure that picketing is peaceful and orderly.

You are liable for any breaches of criminal or civil law you commit, or incite (encourage) others to commit, while you are picketing. This includes:

• trespassing
• causing a noise nuisance
• the use of threats, libel or slander, and offensive material in leaflets, banners, placards, chants or speeches

If you breach a court order banning you or your trade union from staging a picket, you could be found in contempt of court.

Mass picketing

The chance of people breaking the law is higher when there is mass picketing. If there are 20 or more people on a picket line, the police can use special powers to disperse them if it is likely that they will cause

• serious public disorder
• serious damage to property

If the police are concerned that there is a threat to the safety of others, they can order those picketing to stop and may arrest those not complying.

Normally there should be no more than six pickets outside an entrance. This is the maximum number recommended in the Code of Practice on picketing.

Secondary picketing

It is unlawful to picket other companies’ premises where workers are not in dispute with your employer. For example, if you are on strike you should not go to the premises of your employer’s customers to encourage their workers not to handle your employer’s goods. This is known as secondary picketing.

Flying pickets

A group of workers who move between different workplaces to picket them stage what is known as ‘flying pickets’. Flying pickets might be used to carry out secondary picketing, or might be moved between different workplaces owned by the same employer.

Flying pickets are generally unlawful. You can only join a picket line at or near your normal workplace. However, some workers have the right to picket at different locations (for example, mobile workers who have no normal place of work).

If you are a trade union official who is organising pickets across several sites, you may move between different picket lines as long as the workers on those picket lines are trade union members who you would normally represent.