Strike deductions success

Employers must include annual leave and bank
holidays when calculating how much pay to deduct
for strike action, the High Court has ruled. UNISON,
the UK’s largest public sector union, brought the
test case, Cooper v Isle of Wight College, following
strike action to protect members’ pension rights in
March last year.
The decision means that the Isle of Wight College
should have deducted only 1/260th of the annual
salary of a striker for the one-day strike not 1/228th.
The ruling has implications for all employers making
deductions from employees’ wages for taking
strike action.
The union has consistently argued that the correct
method of deducting salaries during strike action
is to deduct the weekend and other non-working
days — but not annual leave or bank holidays — resulting
in a formula of 1/260th of the annual salary
for a day’s strike.
UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “The
amount of money may seem small but the principle
of the case is much bigger. The strike action last
year was to defend pension rights and it involved
30,000 members in the further education sector.