London Underground Ltd v Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen [2011] EWHC 3506 (QB), [2011] All ER (D) 200 (Dec)
As a general notion a strike should have a democratic mandate, however, that begged the question as to what was the relevant ballot constituency. It did not necessarily follow that the persons who should be balloted had to be limited to those who would be on strike, that is, actually withdrawing their labour in breach of contract on a particular day.
It was important that the relevant wording in s 227 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 referred to persons whom a trade union believed would be induced “to take part…in the industrial action in question”. The statutory wording could have said, but did not say, “take…the industrial action in question”. The insertion of the words “take part…in” was a very strong indication that the ballot was not to be restricted to those who would actually take the industrial action
in question, namely withdraw their labour in breach of contract, but extended to those who would take part in such action.
