Industrial Relations Law Bulletin - 644 - Statutory trade union recognition (1): basic procedure The statutory procedure for the recognition and derecognition of trade unions came into force on 6 June 2000, together with related provisions of the Employment Relations Act 1999, statutory instruments and a Code of Practice (see IRLB 642 p.16). Our feature in this issue, the first of a series of three, focuses on the basic procedure to establish union recognition.