Repeals

The 1980 legislation makes two important repeals. In the first instance it regrettably repeals the statutory recognition procedure as set out in the Employment Protection Act 1975, Ss. 11 to 16. The word “recognition” is still statutorily defined though. The reasons for its repeal are threefold. First that the ACAS Council was in disagreement mainly through the philosophies of each of the CBI and TUC representatives as to how the procedure should operate; second, that the courts originally (though perhaps not latterly) diminished the discretion which the ACAS thought it it had under statute; and third, that the legislation, in order to give it a free hand, did not provide any guiding principles as to how the procedure should operate. The combination of all these factors meant a certain lack of confidence by both management and unions. This does not mean the demise of the recognition procedure. A voluntary procedure is still possible and the collective conciliation procedure under S.2 of the 1975 Act could well (if the past is indicative of the future) provide an outlet for recognition to take place.