Editing GCHQ (section)

====Trade union disputes====
{{Main|Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service|GCHQ trade union ban}}
[[File:NUCPS banner.jpg|thumb|right|[[NUCPS]] banner on march in [[Cheltenham]] 1992]]
In 1984, GCHQ was the centre of a political row when, in the wake of strikes which affected Sigint collection, the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] government of [[Margaret Thatcher]] prohibited its employees from belonging to a trade union, asserting that membership of a union was in conflict with [[national security]].<ref name="ferris"/> The government offered £1,000 to each employee who agreed to give up their right to union membership. Following the breakdown of talks and the failure to negotiate a no-strike agreement, a number of mass national one-day strikes were held to protest against this decision, believed by some to be the first step to wider bans on trade unions. Appeals to British courts and the [[European Commission of Human Rights]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=664551&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649 |title=EComHR Inadmissibility decision of EComHR on application no. 11603/85 |year=1987 |access-date=15 November 2010 |archive-date=4 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604022433/http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=664551&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649 |url-status=live }}</ref> were unsuccessful. An appeal to the [[International Labour Organization]] resulted in a decision that the government's actions were in violation of [[Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=664551&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649 |title=EComHR Inadmissibility decision of EComHR on application no. 11603/85 – The Facts |access-date=15 November 2010 |archive-date=4 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604022433/http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=664551&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649 |url-status=live }} para. IV</ref>

A no-strike agreement was eventually negotiated and the ban lifted by the incoming [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] government in 1997, with the Government Communications Group of the [[Public and Commercial Services Union]] (PCS) being formed to represent interested employees at all grades.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gchq.gov.uk/recruitment/union.html |title=Union representation |work=GCHQ website |access-date=12 April 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509054114/http://www.gchq.gov.uk/recruitment/union.html |archive-date=9 May 2006 }}</ref><ref name="ferris"/> In 2000, a group of 14 former GCHQ employees, who had been dismissed after refusing to give up their union membership, were offered re-employment, which three of them accepted.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/627574.stm|title=Sacked GCHQ workers win compensation|work=BBC News|date=1 February 2000|access-date=12 April 2006|archive-date=1 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901074152/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/627574.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

The legal case ''[[Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service]]'' is significant beyond the dispute, and even beyond trade union law, in that it held for the first time that the [[royal prerogative]] is generally subject to [[judicial review]], although the House of Lords ruled in favour of the Crown in this instance.<ref>{{cite book |first=Ewan |last=McGaughey |title=A Casebook on Labour Law |chapter-url={{GBurl|Wnx7DwAAQBAJ|page=323}} |publisher=Hart |date=2019 |chapter=8: Trade Unions |isbn=978-1-84946-931-9|page=360}}</ref>