Judges belonging to trade union GMB have lambasted an attempt by the government to vary their terms and conditions – describing proposals in a publicly unavailable consultation document as ‘constitutionally flawed, substantively detrimental and operationally unjust’.

The Ministry of Justice has been consulting on a new set of ‘aligned’ terms and conditions setting out the rights and responsibilities of judicial officer holders on appointment. The consultation closed last week.

Responding, GMB’s Judicial Branch said the ministry’s proposals fail to respect judicial tenure, independence and the realities of fee-paid and portfolio judicial roles. ‘No account appears to have been taken of the Employment Rights Act 2025. The act’s provisions include the duty to notify workers of their right to join a trade union from October 2026,’ GMB said.

GMB ‘strongly objects to any attempt by the lord chancellor or the Ministry of Justice to unilaterally vary the terms and conditions of appointment of currently serving judges and tribunal experts to their detriment without their individual, express agreement’, the response added.

GMB Union headquarters sign

GMB’s Judicial Branch said proposals fail to respect judicial tenure, independence and realities of fee-paid and portfolio judicial roles

Source: Alamy

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Judges and tribunal experts ‘are constitutional office holders as well as workers. They are appointed on defined terms that underpin judicial independence. Unlike employees, they cannot negotiate changes, move to alternative employers or readily return to their former professions’.

GMB said the proposals sought to incorporate policies hosted on the judicial intranet into the terms and conditions. ‘This would allow substantive changes to be made indirectly, without consent, by amending policy documents. This is constitutionally unsound and unacceptable’.

The Gazette understands copies of the consultation document were sent to various judicial bodies - but not to GMB’s judicial branch. The branch was formally set up in 2023 and has 135 members. GMB’s consultation response states that its judicial branch is the only representative body that covers all judicial office holders at all grades and the various courts and tribunals.