Can workers picket during a strike?

If you are on strike today, you can explain the dispute and ask people not to cross your picket line. You cannot block them. First, call your union or shop steward and confirm the workplace, the picket plan and who to contact if challenged. Peaceful picketing is lawful, but where you stand and what you do matter.

1. Before the next shift, message your union or steward. Ask which entrance to use, who is coordinating the picket and what to do if police or management set conditions. For care or health, cleaning, hospitality or retail work, note the site, rota and supervisor; for warehouse or delivery work, confirm the depot and gate.
2. Keep a record as you go. Save messages, ballot and strike notices, rota changes, pay slips and any threat or disciplinary letter. Write down dates and names while you remember them.

What picketing means in law

Picketing means attending a workplace to explain a dispute and persuade people to work or not to work. Striking means withholding your labour. You can do either without doing both.

Section 220 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, or TULRCA, sets Great Britain’s peaceful-picketing conditions. Together with the Act’s other requirements, these can protect you and your union against civil claims for inducing a breach of contract or interfering with its performance. This is limited immunity, not permission to break other laws.

1. Picket in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute. This covers disputes between workers and their employer about matters such as pay, working conditions, allocation of work, discipline or union recognition. A general political protest does not qualify merely because a union organises it.
2. Use your own workplace. Stand at or near the place where you work, subject to the exceptions below. Another branch of the same employer is not automatically a permitted location.
3. Keep the purpose peaceful. Your only purpose must be peacefully obtaining or communicating information, or peacefully persuading someone to work or not to work.

The Code of Practice on Picketing, revised with effect from 5 March 2026, gives practical guidance. Breaching the Code does not itself create liability, but courts, employment tribunals and the Central Arbitration Committee must consider its provisions where relevant.

Where you can stand

“At or near” has no statutory definition. The Code advises staying as near as practicable to your workplace’s entrance or exit. Head office, another branch or a customer’s premises does not qualify simply because it would attract more attention.

Mobile workers and impracticable locations

If you work at several places, or picketing at your workplace is impracticable because of its location, you may picket your employer’s premises from which you work or from which your work is administered. A lorry driver can usually picket their operating depot.

Workers dismissed over the dispute

If your last employment ended in connection with the dispute, or its termination helped cause it, you may picket your former workplace until you take a job elsewhere.

Union officials accompanying members

A union official can attend at or near the workplace of members they accompany and personally represent. Elected or appointed lay officials, including shop stewards, can qualify. Union office alone does not entitle you to join any line.

Family, friends and other supporters do not acquire immunity by joining you. The Code advises them to keep well away and organisers to refuse outsiders’ offers to join. A separate demonstration must comply with protest law.

What pickets can do

If you drive through a line, you still owe the usual duty of care. Being entitled to cross does not excuse dangerous driving or putting pickets at a foreseeable risk of injury.

Noise can amount to nuisance or engage public-order powers, even without violence. Placards, leaflets and spoken allegations can also be defamatory.

The Code recommends agreeing passage for essential supplies and services with the employer in advance. Examples include ambulances, medical supplies, food, heating fuel, livestock care and plant-safety work. This guidance is separate from the prohibition on blocking access.

How many pickets can attend?

There is no fixed statutory maximum. The Code recommends generally no more than six pickets per workplace entrance or exit, often fewer. Police need not allow six.

Police can limit numbers on reasonable grounds to fear a breach of the peace. The Code cites Piddington v Bates, the 1960 case upholding a two-picket limit in that dispute’s circumstances.

Police conditions on assemblies

Section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 allows a senior officer to impose conditions on reasonable grounds to expect serious disorder, serious property damage, serious disruption to community life or coercive intimidation. England and Wales also have noise-related grounds and, from 29 June 2026, a ground concerning intimidation near places of worship.

For ordinary outdoor public assemblies, the section 16 threshold is two people in England and Wales, but 20 in Scotland. Scottish conditions are limited to location, duration and numbers; England-and-Wales conditions can be wider. The Code’s unqualified reference to 20 is not the England-and-Wales rule.

Comply with lawful police conditions and seek union legal advice if you need to challenge them. Police enforce criminal law and keep the peace. They do not decide the merits of the dispute.

Mass picketing and flying pickets

A large picket is not criminal by headcount alone. But using a crowd to intimidate people or prevent entry is not peaceful persuasion, and can mean obstruction, nuisance or police restrictions.

“Flying pickets” travel to other workplaces. Travelling is not an offence, but picketing somewhere other than your workplace normally loses protection, subject to the exceptions above. Picketing another site of your own employer can fail the location test without being secondary action.

Secondary action involves workers whose employer is outside the dispute. A specific exception allows qualifying peaceful pickets at their own workplace, and qualifying union officials, to persuade another employer’s workers not to work. You can ask a visiting delivery driver not to cross. That does not give the driver your strike protections.

Must you join the line, and can you cross?

Attending the line is voluntary. You can strike without picketing. Remote workers also choose whether to strike or work, without a physical line to cross.

You can cross your workplace’s line or someone else’s. Union penalties merely for crossing to work or declining to support action are unjustifiable discipline. This does not make every disciplinary decision connected with a dispute unlawful.

Keep any penalty decision or payment demand. An employment tribunal can declare the discipline unjustifiable. Compensation then goes through the tribunal, or the Employment Appeal Tribunal if the union has not lifted the penalty or reversed its effects.

Picketing, dismissal and lost pay

Lawful picketing does not make an unprotected strike protected. If picketing amounts to a call for industrial action for which a union is responsible, the union needs a properly conducted secret ballot to retain immunity.

For ballots opened from 18 February 2026, the 40% support threshold in important public services has gone. The 50% turnout threshold and majority-in-favour requirement remain. The union must ballot all members reasonably expected to be called on, not non-members. See our strike-ballot guide for the other requirements.

For employees who began taking protected action before 18 February 2026, the old rules remain, including the broadly 12-week protected period. The transition turns on your participation date, not the strike’s start date. See the government’s transition guidance.

Non-members, agency staff and supporters

Acas includes non-members in the bargaining unit, the workers the union represents, among those who can picket. Employees joining protected action can have dismissal protection without union membership. Non-members do not vote in the union’s ballot.

An agency worker’s immunity at a hirer’s site depends on their employer, the employer party to the dispute and the workplace. Get union advice. Refusing to cross does not necessarily protect your assignment or pay.

Regulation 7 of the Conduct Regulations 2003 prohibits employment businesses from supplying replacements for strikers or staff transferred to cover them, if the agency knows or reasonably should know about the action. Unofficial action is excepted. The High Court quashed the 2022 repeal in 2023.

Refusing to cross in sympathy with a dispute involving another employer is secondary, unofficial action without industrial-action protection. Ordinary employment rights remain, but withholding work can mean lost pay and breach of contract.

Some people labelled self-employed legally count as workers. Check your employment status; genuinely independent businesses should not assume employment-law strike protections apply.

Injunctions and civil liability

Immunity does not cover trespass, nuisance, defamation, harassment or assault. Someone whose contract is unlawfully interfered with can seek an injunction in England and Wales, an interdict in Scotland, and damages for loss. Separate civil wrongs also allow court remedies.

Courts can issue interim orders before a full hearing. Disobedience can mean contempt penalties, including court control of union assets. Changing the pickets does not sidestep an order covering those acting for the organiser.

A union can be responsible for unlawful inducements by its leadership, committees or officials, including shop stewards. Effective repudiation of a committee’s or official’s act requires prompt written notices and other strict steps. Liability for other civil wrongs follows common-law rules. See union representatives’ roles.

If you face dismissal or penalties, keep the letters and dates. For most tribunal claims, the limit is three months less a day for problems before 1 October 2026, and six months less a day for problems on or after that date. Tell Acas within the limit; early conciliation pauses time only if you notify them before it expires. An internal appeal does not stop the clock. Your union, Citizens Advice or a local law centre can help. For union discipline, see the separate deadline above. See penalties for union activity and unfair dismissal claims.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland shares section 220 and the Great Britain Code. The equivalent of an injunction is an interdict; the Code refers to the Court of Session. Scottish breach-of-the-peace and roads law apply, and assembly rules differ as explained above.

Northern Ireland’s Industrial Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1992 and separate Code use similar workplace and peaceful-purpose rules, generally recommending no more than six pickets per entrance or exit. The Great Britain reforms described here do not apply there.

Use nidirect’s picketing guidance and the Labour Relations Agency. Union-discipline complaints go to Industrial Tribunals. Do not import Great Britain dismissal rules or deadlines. See Northern Ireland employment-law differences.

What has changed, and what is still scheduled?

1. 18 Feb 2026Ballot mandate and notice reforms in force

   Ballots opened from this date have a 12-month mandate instead of six months. Notices received by employers from this date require 10 days. The old requirement was 14 days, or seven by agreement.

2. 5 Mar 2026Revised picketing Code in effect

   It replaces the 2024 version and removes the repealed supervisor and minimum-service-level material.

3. 25 Aug 2026More ballot methods permitted

   Electronic, hybrid and workplace voting are permitted under the 2026 balloting Order. Workplace voting requires employer agreement and excludes merchant seamen and offshore workers. The chosen method’s legal requirements still apply.

Follow later commencements in our Employment Rights Act 2025 guide. Wider voting methods have not removed the 50% turnout threshold.

Questions people ask

Is picketing legal throughout the UK?

Peaceful picketing can be lawful throughout the UK, but Great Britain and Northern Ireland have separate legal frameworks. This guide’s section 220 rules and 2026 reforms concern Great Britain. Meeting the attendance rules does not excuse obstruction or guarantee protection for the strike itself.

Do I have to stand on the line if I strike?

No. Withholding labour and attending a picket are separate choices. You can strike without attending the line, including when you work from home.

Can pickets stop me entering or making a delivery?

They can ask you to stop and explain the dispute. They cannot force you to listen or block your passage. If you drive past, you must still take care not to injure anyone.

Can I picket another branch or my employer’s head office?

Not simply because it belongs to your employer. The normal rule is your own workplace. Mobile workers, workers whose employment ended over the dispute and union officials accompanying represented members have specific exceptions.

Can I be sacked for picketing?

Employees dismissed because they take protected industrial action can claim automatic unfair dismissal. There is no 12-week cut-off if you began that action on or after 18 February 2026. Peaceful-picketing immunity alone does not establish dismissal protection, and it does not protect separate misconduct.

Can my union punish me for crossing?

Not merely for crossing to work or declining to support industrial action. That can be unjustifiable discipline. Keep the disciplinary decision, take advice and check the deadline that applies to its date.

Sources

1. Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, section 220, legislation.gov.uk.
2. Code of Practice on Picketing, March 2026 revision, GOV.UK.
3. Code of Practice (Picketing) Order 2026, article 2, legislation.gov.uk.
4. Picketing, Acas.
5. Trade union law: transition to Employment Rights Act 2025, GOV.UK.
6. Public Order Act 1986, section 14 and section 16, legislation.gov.uk.
7. TULRCA, section 65, unjustifiable discipline and section 66, complaints, legislation.gov.uk.
8. Employment Rights Act 2025 commencement and time-limit transition regulations, SI 2026/954, legislation.gov.uk.
9. Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026, legislation.gov.uk.
10. TULRCA, section 236A, detriment on grounds of industrial action and draft Protection Against Detriment (Industrial Action) Regulations 2026, legislation.gov.uk.
11. Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, regulation 7, legislation.gov.uk.
12. Picketing and picket lines, nidirect.

Sources for the practice checks

1. Trade union membership, UK 1995 to 2025: statistical bulletin, Department for Business and Trade.
2. Tribunal statistics quarterly, April to June 2026, Ministry of Justice.
3. Employment tribunal time limits, Acas, updated 1 October 2026.