Lidl issued proceedings for judicial review of the Central Arbitration Committee’s decision that the proposed bargaining unit applied for by GMB was appropriate but the claim was dismissed. On appeal, the Court recognised that a specific part of the workforce’s core terms and conditions would be determined by collective bargaining whereas the rest would not which was “fragmented” and the proposed unit was small. However, this fragmentation did not fall under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, s 19B as it didn’t involve fragmentation between bargaining units. The Court did recognise that Lidl’s concerns about having a small amount of union recognition was not necessarily irrelevant to the question of whether it was appropriate, but reiterated that this did not come under s 19 B. It similarly held that it would not be proportionate to allow the applicant to raise a further point concerning the tension that would result from the creation of the bargaining unit and thus dismissed the appeal.
Aileen McColgan was involved in this case.