THE INDEPENDENT Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) is bringing a landmark legal action which could introduce the concept of a “joint-employer” to English law, the union announced today.

The IWGB filed a claim for judicial review at the High Court yesterday, challenging an earlier decision by the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) which held that outsourced workers were not entitled to collectively bargain with the University of London.

The union has been supporting the university’s outsourced workers in their campaign to be brought back in-house since September.

In November, the IWGB brought a case seeking statutory recognition for security guards, porters, post room workers and receptionists from both the university and facilities management company Cordant Security, but that was rejected by the CAC in January.

The IWGB said that, to date, the law has been interpreted as only allowing workers to collectively bargain with their direct employer.

But it added that, if this test case was successful, it would open the doors for workers throughout Britain to collectively bargain with both their de facto employer and their direct employer.

The union is also arguing that denying the outsourced workers the right to collectively bargain with the university, their de facto employer, is a breach of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

IWGB general secretary Jason Moyer-Lee said: “Low-paid outsourced workers across the country routinely have their pay and terms and conditions decided by their de facto employers, whose premises they clean or maintain.

“In this set-up, the contractors are often little more than glorified middle men. For the collective bargaining rights of these low-paid workers to mean anything, they must be able to negotiate with the actual decision maker.”

Jolyon Maugham QC, founder of the Good Law Project which is supporting the IWGB, said: “The treatment of workers with modest bargaining power and little influence, can be hidden from view, but it shouldn't be hidden from the law through the use of faceless outsourcing companies.”

The IWGB has organised what is set to be the biggest-ever strike of outsourced workers in British higher education history on April 25 and 26.