Mr C Ilangaratne of Counsel For the First v Severnprint Ltd (In Administration) and 1 other — 2024

Severnprint Limited told employees on 23 January 2024 that the business was not financially viable, and letters on 24 January 2024 said roles were at risk of redundancy. The company then elected five employee representatives, including Mr Andrew Allen, Mr Anthony Long, Ms Ellie Locke, Ms Stacey Beaver and Mr Bruce Stacey. On 31 January 2024 the proposed administrator told them that all employees were being made redundant with immediate effect, and the company later entered administration on 8 February 2024.

Employment Judge N J Roper held that the complaint under section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 was well founded. The tribunal found there was no recognised independent trade union, that the elected representatives had standing to bring the protective award claim on behalf of the workers they represented, and that the respondent did not begin consultation in good time and in any event at least 30 days before the first dismissals took effect. It therefore made a protective award for all office and shift workers at the Ashville Industrial Estate premises who were dismissed as redundant on 31 January 2024, for a protected period of 90 days beginning on that date.

The remaining claims were dismissed. The tribunal held that Mr Lewis Allen, Ms Joanne Ireland, Mr Konstantin Ivanov, Mr David Biggs, Mr Carl Steffensen, Mr John Andrews, Mr Andrew Nelson, Mr Leeroy Ellis, Mr Mark Beard, Ms Susan Holvey and Mr Danny Grant did not have standing because they were not among the elected employee representatives, and it also dismissed Mr Bruce Stanley's case as a mistaken duplicate of Mr Bruce Stacey's case.