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Section 179: Whether agreement intended to be a legally enforceable contract.

Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 · 1992 c. 52View on legislation.gov.uk

Part IV: Industrial Relations — Chapter I: Collective bargaining

A collective agreement shall be conclusively presumed not to have been intended by the parties to be a legally enforceable contract unless the agreement—

is in writing, and
contains a provision which (however expressed) states that the parties intend that the agreement shall be a legally enforceable contract.

A collective agreement which does satisfy those conditions shall be conclusively presumed to have been intended by the parties to be a legally enforceable contract.

If a collective agreement is in writing and contains a provision which (however expressed) states that the parties intend that one or more parts of the agreement specified in that provision, but not the whole of the agreement, shall be a legally enforceable contract, then—

the specified part or parts shall be conclusively presumed to have been intended by the parties to be a legally enforceable contract, and
the remainder of the agreement shall be conclusively presumed not to have been intended by the parties to be such a contract.

A part of a collective agreement which by virtue of subsection (3)(b) is not a legally enforceable contract may be referred to for the purpose of interpreting a party of the agreement which is such a contract.

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This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.