The Communication Workers Union were due to reveal the results of a strike ballot which could have seen possible strike action being taken by its 50,000 members; however rather than announced said results, the CWU announced their disappointment at calling off the vote.

According to an article on the Independent by Nick Clark, the cancellation of the strike ballot followed several letters from UK telecoms giant BT which basically amounted to a legal challenge, and after taking legal advice the union scrapped the vote which followed a pay dispute with BT and its engineers and call centre workers.

Apparently the legal advice “clearly outlined that under the notoriously restrictive trade union laws in the UK, certain technical breaches would potentially invalidate the ballot.”

Andy Kerr, the deputy general secretary of the CWU said, “The legal technicalities on which this ballot has been cancelled again raise questions over the right to strike and the extremely restrictive trade union laws that exist in the UK. The law, in our view, appears to be outdated when it comes to the provision of information.”