THE FACTS
As we reported (available here), the EAT last year considered
section 145B of the Trade Union Labour Relations (Consolidation)
Act (TULR(C)A) for the first time. The EAT's decision, which
went against the employer Kostal, upheld the employment
tribunal's decision that Kostal had offered employees unlawful
inducements to cease collective bargaining when it directly offered
them a package of terms and conditions, going over the head of the
recognised trade union. Kostal appealed to the Court of Appeal.
Section 145B prohibits employers making offers to workers who
are members of a recognised trade union, if acceptance of the offer
would have "the prohibited result" and the employer's
sole or main purpose in making the offer is to achieve that result.
The "prohibited result" is that the workers' terms of
employment, or any of those terms, "will not (or will no
longer) be determined by collective agreement negotiated on behalf
of the union". The aim of the
