It is a matter of fact and judgment for an Employment Tribunal to determine whether shop stewards were refused employment due to their union activity or some other reason, such as undue pressure being brought to bear on the employer to employ those individuals.
A trade union official pressured the employer to recruit three named employees with a view to their acting as shop stewards.
Interserve Industrial Services (IIS) is a company which provides labour for "shutdown projects" at oil depots. The Claimants were scaffolders who were were members of UNITE. They applied for employment with the IIS on a project known as the Murco shutdown but were not taken on. Two of them also applied for employment on the Pembroke shutdown but were likewise not recruited. They brought proceedings in the ET claiming that the reason why they were not taken on was their trade union membership, contrary to section 137 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 [1] and/or that their non-employment was for a reason relating to a prohibited list, contrary to regulation 5 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010 [2].