Combination Acts  Combination Acts,  British acts of 1799 and
1800 that made trade unionism illegal. The laws, as finally
amended, sentenced to three months in jail or to two months’
hard labour any workingman who combined with another to gain an
increase in wages or a decrease in hours or who solicited anyone
else to leave work or objected to working with any other
workman. The sentence was to be imposed by two magistrates, and
appeal was made extremely difficult. Anyone contributing to the
expenses of a person convicted under the act was subject to a
fine, and defendants could be forced to bear witness against
each other. Other clauses forbade employers’ combinations, but
these were never in any recorded case put into operation. The
repeal of the Combination Acts in 1824 was followed by a number
of strikes, and in 1825 an unsuccessful attempt was made to
reimpose the acts.