Serco Ltd (trading as Serco Docklands) v National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers [2011] EWCA Civ 226, [2011] All ER (D) 65 (Mar)
If a member who was not entitled to vote was wrongly given the opportunity to do so, that would be a breach of s 230(2) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, rather than s 227(1); however, s 232B applied whichever section was infringed. The premise of s 232B was that there was a breach of s 227 or s 230(2) as the case might be, otherwise the section would not come into play.
Where s 230(2) was infringed, the premise was that the union had not done what was reasonably practicable to prevent those not entitled to vote from voting. The only question was why it had failed to prevent them voting. If it conferred the opportunity to vote on those whom it knew or should have known would not subsequently be induced to take part in the strike then it could not rely on the exception.
