The most effective means of avoiding industrial action is to adopt good employment relations practices that reduce the likelihood of industrial disputes arising. Efficient and fair procedures for dealing with the resolution of grievances and effective channels of communication between management and workforce are particularly important.
Employers that have established relationships with trade unions are likely to have agreed some form of dispute resolution mechanism with the unions in order to avoid or reduce the risk of industrial action. The national procedural agreements between the EEF and the unions in engineering, for example, set out procedures for resolving disputes. They also provide that there will be no stoppage of work until the procedure has been exhausted, and that whatever practice or agreement existed prior to the dispute arising will continue to apply while the procedure is under way.
Industrial action that is taken before these agreed procedures have been exhausted is termed 'unconstitutional action'. When industrial action is taken after procedures have been exhausted it is termed 'constitutional action'. Whether or not action is constitutional within the terms of an agreed procedure does not, however, affect whether it can be legally challenged. That depends on the legal rules explained elsewhere in this section (union liability for industrial action). However, it is, of course, easier to persuade a trade union official to call off unconstitutional action than constitutional industrial action.