Trade Disputes Act 1906
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| Long title | An Act to provide for the regulation of Trades Unions and Trade Disputes. |
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| Citation | 6 Edw. 7 c. 47 |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales; Scotland; Northern Ireland |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 21 December 1906 |
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Status: Repealed
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The Trade Disputes Act 1906 (6 Edw. 7 c. 47) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed under the Liberal government of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. The Act declared that unions could not be sued for damages incurred during a strike.
Its key reform was to add the famous words, now found in the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, section 219, to the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875 that, "An act done in pursuance of an agreement or combination by two or more persons shall, if done in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute, not be actionable unless the act, if done without any such agreement or combination, would be actionable."
The immediate cause for the Act was a trio of cases in the House of Lords, which had for the first time imposed damages in tort on trade unions for going on strike. Previously, the legal status of trade unions as an "unincorporated association", was accepted to mean that they did not have legal standing to sue, or be sued, in court.
Before the change, the two important cases were Lumley v Gye (1857) and Allen v Flood (1897). Lumley did not concern trade unions, but invented a new legal principle. An actress, Miss Wagner, had been engaged by Mr. Lumley to sing at Her Majesty's Theatre. Mr. Gye, who ran Covent Garden Theatre, procured her to break her contract with Mr. Lumley by promising to pay her more. He was held liable to Mr. Lumley for inducing a breach of contract. This is a principle readily applicable to union situations. In the case of a strike, a union effectively persuades or decides for workers to go on strike, in breach of their contracts with employers. But in Allen, the House of Lords held that a trade union could not be sued by a non-union worker for pressuring the employer into not hiring them. They said that even though the union's motive was malicious, the employer not hiring the non-union worker was lawful.
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