[IER] Half Day Seminar: Friction Dynamics, Learning the Lessons

[Carolyn Jones]

Friction Dynamics: Learning the lessons from a forgotten dispute


Monday 02 July 2012


A half-day seminar 
Unite the Union, London 
13:30 - 16:15

In association with Unite the Union

 
<http://www.ier.org.uk/events/friction-dynamics-learning-lessons-forgotten-d
ispute> Friction Dynamics.jpg


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About the Seminar


In 2002 an employment tribunal in Liverpool announced that 86 workers
dismissed by their former employer, Friction Dynamics Ltd, a car parts
manufacturer in North Wales, had won their claims for unfair dismissal. The
workers had been sacked for taking strike action in defence of their terms
and conditions of employment and the recognition of their union, TGWU.

But the tribunal victory was next to worthless. Their jobs were lost. No
reinstatement orders were issued because the employer went into
administration. Despite the company reconvening some months later as Dynamex
Friction, the insolvency of the original employer meant that the workers
only recovered their basic awards, money that came from the taxpayer not
from the employer. Nevertheless, the workers remained on strike and on
picket duty for two and a half years – making the strike the UK’s longest
running workplace dispute.

In this, the 10th anniversary year of the tribunal decision, we meet to
consider the implications of the dispute; the lessons to be learned for
today and how and in what ways the law has changed, if at all, over the past
10 years. Friction Dynamics exposed the weaknesses in the UK’s framework of
labour law including the doctrine of ‘protected industrial action’, the
inadequacy of unfair dismissal remedies, the restrictions on solidarity
action and the enormous loopholes in the protections offered by the TUPE
Regulations.

At this event some of the key individuals involved in the dispute, including
the lawyers who represented the workers at tribunal, will come together to
examine the dispute and discuss how the law might be changed to better
protect workers in the future.

 


 


Speakers


Bryan Davis

The history and facts of the dispute

 

Gerald Parry, Unite the Union

Supporting the grass roots: The role of the local trade union

 

John Hendy QC

Legal implications past and present

 

 
<http://www.ier.org.uk/sites/ier.org.uk/files/IER_frictiondynamics_London_2j
uly2012finaldraft.pdf> Click here to download the full programme

 


Cost


£45 Subscribers and members
£60 Trade unions
£120 Commercial


Location


Diskus Room
Unite the Union
128 Theobolds Road
LONDON 
WC1X 8TN


Complete and return the
<http://www.ier.org.uk/sites/ier.org.uk/files/Booking%20Form%20Friction%20Dy
namics%202-7-12.doc> attached booking form

 
<http://www.ier.org.uk/events/friction-dynamics-learning-lessons-forgotten-d
ispute> Or go to the website to pay online

 

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