Case 1402298/2020 · Employment Tribunal
Community Union & Others v ACL 2020 Ltd (in administration) and 1 other — 2021
- Case reference
- 1402298/2020
- Decision date
- 30 April 2021
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Matthews Representation
- Venue
- In Chambers
Parties
3 namedClaimant
Community Union & Others
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningCommunity Union brought a claim for a protective award under section 189 TULRCA. The individual claimants' similar claims had been adjourned. The First Respondent did not defend the claim, and the Second Respondent neither supported nor resisted it but asked the Tribunal to evaluate its validity.
The Tribunal found that Community was recognised by the First Respondent for collective bargaining purposes in respect of all relevant employees at the Gamberlake establishment, and therefore had standing as the appropriate representative to bring the claim. It also found that the First Respondent proposed to dismiss 86 employees at that establishment within 90 days, and that the claim had been brought in time.
The Tribunal found almost no evidence of consultation or provision of information about the proposed redundancies, and noted that the HR1 form acknowledged that no consultation with appropriate representatives had started. No special circumstances were advanced. The Tribunal declared that the First Respondent had failed to comply with section 188 TULRCA and made a protective award of 90 days' pay, finding that the full award was just and equitable because there were no mitigating circumstances.
Claims and outcomes
1 finding recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade union | Community Union's claim for a protective award under sections 188 and 189 TULRCA was found well founded. The award was expressed as remuneration for a protected period of 90 days from 19 February 2020 for affected employees, not as a quantified monetary sum. | Upheld | — | — |
Legal tests applied
6 references- section 178 TULRCA
- section 188 TULRCA
- section 189 TULRCA
- Clarkes of Hove Ltd v Bakers Union [1978] ICR 1076
- Susie Radin Limited v GMB & Ors [2004] IRLR 400
- Smith v Cherry Lewis Limited [2005] IRLR 86
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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