Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Combination Act 1799 prohibited trade unions and collective bargaining by British workers. Any two or more workers who joined together to demand changes to wages, hours, or workload could be punished under common law as misdemeanants. A companion act followed in 1800, and the two measures were known collectively as the Combination Acts.
The Combination Act 1799 received royal assent on the 12th of July 1799.
The act was passed under William Pitt the Younger's government in response to Jacobin activity and the fear, held by Home Secretary the Duke of Portland, that workers would strike during wartime to force the government into concessions. Political anxiety about revolutionary radicalism spreading from France shaped the legislation.
The Combination Acts were repealed in 1824. Lobbying by the radical tailor Francis Place played a significant role in achieving that repeal.
After a series of strikes followed the 1824 repeal, Parliament passed the Combinations of Workmen Act 1825 (6 Geo. 4. c. 129). That act allowed trade unions to exist but severely restricted their activity.
Francis Place was a radical tailor who lobbied for the repeal of the Combination Acts. His campaigning contributed to their repeal in 1824, which for the first time permitted open trade union organisation in Britain.