Anthony Gold Solicitors has a long association with trade unions. Our rapidly growing Employment department is expanding the specialist employment and industrial law service we are able to provide to our trade union clients and their members. Our team provides legal and strategic support to union officials and represents unions and their members in legal proceedings. All of our solicitors have experience in advising trade union members as well as employees and senior executives.

We cover the whole range of employment and industrial law and advise on trade union constitutional matters and collective bargaining.

The firm has a strong reputation for taking on challenging discrimination cases, particularly those involving workplace stress, and specialises in equal pay, discrimination and whistle-blower cases.

The team tailors their service to the particular needs of each trade union, association, union official and individual.

We are attuned to the industrial context, objectives and constraints our clients operate in and we are able to give a quick and practical response. Clients speak directly to a lawyer and are usually receiving advice in a matter of hours.

Anthony Gold’s current trade union clients include the FDA, the ISU, the FBU and several smaller unions and associations and individual union branches.

The Team

Aneil Balgobin – Partner

Aneil Balgobin has over 20 years of experience working with trade unions and advising their members and non-member employees at all levels on a wide variety of employment issues and on how to use the law to improve their position. Aneil Balgobin, who is an Anthony Gold Partner and the Head of Employment Law, has a reputation for hard bargaining and getting the most for his client in negotiations.

Nick Hanning – Consultant

Nick Hanning has unrivalled experience in cases involving employment, discrimination and occupational health law. He has specialist expertise in cases involving work-related psychiatric injury, whether as a result of occupational stress, harassment or discrimination. He acted for the claimant in the seminal case of Majrowski v Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust [2006] UKHL 34 which established employers’ vicarious liability for breach of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 and in a case that achieved the highest ever Employment Tribunal award of over £4.5million.Nick was appointed as Fee Paid Employment Judge and Deputy District Judge in 2020 and has recently acted for a FBU supported member in a complex discrimination claim.

Joy Drummond – Partner (non-member)

Joy Drummond has practiced employment law for trade unions and their members for almost 40 years, and is able to bring this vast experience in the practical application of employment, trade union and industrial law to the legal and strategic advice she gives her clients.

As well as assisting unions and professional associations and their members she also advises non-union employees, managers and senior executives. Joy has been a key member of leading teams recognised by the legal directories since 2000 and ranked as an individual with Chambers for Employment: Employee & Trade Union for 10 years (Band 2). The 2023 Chambers and Partners Guide, where Joy is recognised as a Band 2 lawyer, says: “Joy Drummond is considered a go-to adviser by a number of major trade unions, which rely upon her for an array of disputes. She is known for her strength handling issues of industrial action, unfair dismissal, whistleblowing, discrimination and breach of contract.”

Inbar Rabinovitz – Associate Solicitor

Inbar Rabinovitz regularly advises and acts for employees on all aspects of employment law and has a particular expertise in disability, race and maternity discrimination. She has recently been advising the FBU on the claims of one of their members and has advised employees in two separate collective redundancy situations .

Michael Tyndall – Solicitor

Michael Tyndall had several years’ experience specialising in employment law before qualifying and has worked on numerous trade union cases including complex discrimination claims and, most recently, in a multiple claim for union members for unlawful deduction of wages following the removal of a longstanding allowance. He also has experience of multiple protective award claims.

Trade Union Services That We Offer Include:

– Advising officials representing their members either individually or collectively in disputes with their employer or in collective bargaining including;

• Supporting officials who are representing members in internal appeals and grievances
• Assisting officials who are the named representative in employment tribunal proceedings
• Contributing to the union’s case in collective bargaining

– Advising and representing members

– Advising the union on constitutional issues and industrial action