CHAPTER II. DEFINITION OF TRADE UNIONS AND THEIR POWERS. Trade Unions Defined. Defini A TRADE UNION has been defined by statute as any Statutory combination, whether temporary or permanent (a), tion. (a) for regulating the relations between work men and masters; or (b) for regulating the relations between workmen and workmen; or (c) for regulating the relations between masters and masters; or (d) for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business (b). But a combination concerning solely, (a) Any agreement between partners as to their own business; or (b) Any agreement between an employer and those employed by him as to such employment; or (c) Any agreement in consideration of the sale (a) Whether such combination would or would not, if the Trade Union Act, 1871, had not been passed, have been deemed to be an unlawful combination by reason of some one or more of its purposes being in restraint (b) (1876) 39 & 40 Vict. c. 22, s. 16. Common Law Definition. 1 of the goodwill of a business or of instruction in any profession, trade or handicraft, is not thereby constituted a trade union (a). A combination that has among its objects the regulation of such matters as are referred to in the statutory definition is not necessarily a trade union. "The legislature did not create the name for the purpose of the Trade Union Acts. It was at the time a well-known term, connoting combinations of a known type formed for objects and purposes which were well recognised." In Hornby v. Close,2 decided prior to the passing of the 1871 Act, Cockburn, C.J., said that the term trade union may be held to include "every combination by which men bind themselves not to work except under certain conditions, and to support one another, in the event of being thrown out of employment, in carrying out the views of the majority," and a similar definition, extended to cover the case of combinations of masters as well as of men, was embodied in the Trade Union Act, 1871, as above cited. Scope of This definition, though applying to combinations Statutory Definition. for regulating the relations between workmen and masters, or between members of either class, did not expressly apply to the regulation of industry. "Before the passing of the 1876 Act there might possibly have been some doubt as to whether a society imposing conditions with regard to the 1 Per Fletcher Moulton, L.J., (No. 1), [1909] 1 Ch. 163, at in Osborne V. Amalgamated p. 184. Society of Railway Servants 2 (1867) 2 Q. B. 153. (a) (1871) 34 & 35 Vict. c. 31, s. 23. transaction of business was a trade union, and this doubt led to the passing of section 16 of the Act of 1876, which further defines a trade union as being a combination for imposing restrictive conditions on any trade or business." 1 The terms of the statutory definition are very wide, so that, in order to show that a combination is not a trade union, it is insufficient to show that the regulations imposing restrictive conditions on any trade are only such as are necessary to secure results beneficial to such trade.2 Thus, a trading association, which fixes the rate at which trading companies, federated to the association, may charge for their goods, and a trade protection society, which imposes restrictions on the federated trading companies as to the employment by them of particular persons, are trade unions (a). 3 Union A trade union cannot be registered as a limited Trade company under the Companies (Consolidation) Act, not a 1908, and, if so registered, the registration is Statutory void (b). Where the Court is of opinion that Limited 1 Per Lord Alverstone, M.R., in Chamberlain's Wharf, Ltd. v. Smith, [1900] 2 Ch. 605, at p. 612. 2 Per Lord Moncreiff, in Edinburgh and District Aerated (a) Mineral Water Bottle Exchange and Trade Protection Society v. Booth, (1887) 36 Ch. D. 465. Where an incorporated society, whose charter expressly prohibits it being a trade union, takes over the business of a trade union, the imposition by the society of restrictive con Registered Company, How far a a society, whose objects are partly those of a friendly society, comes within the definition of trade union (a), the society cannot avail itself of the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, nor of the Friendly Societies Acts, and its registration under the Friendly Societies Acts is void (b). A registered trade union is not a statutory insurbisurance ance company, and is exempt from the provisions Company of the Assurance Companies Act, 1909 (c). An unregistered trade union carrying on insurance business, and originally established more than twenty years before the commencement of the 1909 Act, may, on application, receive from the Board of Trade the exemption conferred by that Act on registered trade unions, if it appears to the Board, after consulting the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies, that the society is one to which it is inexpedient that theprovisions of this Act should apply. It would appear, therefore, that an unregistered trade union, established within twenty years of the 3rd of December, 1909, must comply with the requirements of the Assurance Companies Act, 1909 (d). No trade union, registered or unregistered, may insure against or pay, on the death of a child under ten er five years of age, any sum of money which, added to any amount payable on the death of such hit by any other society, exceeds ten or six pounds respectively (a). No such trade union may pay any sum on the death of a child under ten years of age except to the parent of the child, or to the personal representative of the parents, upon production by either of these of a certificate of death issued by the registrar of deaths, or other person having the care of the register of deaths. The certificate of death must be indorsed with certain particulars as to the liability of the trade union (b). Any trade union, or office or member thereof, who pays money on the death of a child under ten years, otherwise than in the manner provided by the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, is liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds (c). Powers of Trade Unions Defined. Trade The definition of a trade union contained in the Powers of Acts of 1871 and 1876 is a limiting and restrictive Unions definition. The Trade Union Acts constitute, as 1 restricted within Defini it were, a charter of incorporation; they render Statutory some things lawful which would otherwise be tion. unlawful, and what is not within the ambit of the statute is prohibited to a trade union." It is a broad and general principle that companies, incorporated by statute for special purposes, and 1 Per Cozens-Hardy, M.R., in Osborne v. Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (No. 1), 'a) (1876) 39 & 40 Vict. c. 22, B. 2; (1896) 59 & 60 Vict. c. 25, s. 62. (b) Ibid., ss. 63, 64. Several other formalities must be com [1909] 1 Ch. 163, at p. 175. plied with, as to which see the |