Mr Martin Jackson, Citizens’ Advice Cornwall For the First v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and 2 others — 2020

This was a collective protective award claim brought by Mr J Pearce and 44 others against Fifteen Cornwall Limited. The tribunal found that Fifteen employed 56 people at the Watergate Bay restaurant and that, at a meeting on 12 December 2019, the claimants were told that the business had ceased trading with immediate effect and that all staff were to be made redundant immediately, save for a small number retained only until 19 December 2019. The tribunal also found that there was no independent recognised trade union and no staff association or other elected employee representative body.

The tribunal found that the respondent failed to undertake any, or any adequate, consultation with the claimants before dismissal. Applying section 188 TULRCA, it concluded that the second respondent failed to comply with the statutory requirement to consult about the proposed redundancies, and that the complaint was well founded. It therefore made a protective award for employees dismissed as redundant on or after 12 December 2019 and declared that each such employee was entitled to remuneration for a protected period of 90 days beginning on that date. The extracted judgment does not state a separate monetary total for the award.