Miss J Cekstere v Bespoke Hotels Ltd — 2022

The respondent’s name was amended to Bespoke Hotels (Plymouth) Limited (in Voluntary Liquidation). The claimant, Miss J Cekstere, had been employed as a housekeeper since 13 April 2013 and was among about 56 employees dismissed as redundant on 2 February 2021 at The Duke of Cornwall Hotel in Plymouth. The respondent entered creditors voluntary liquidation on 12 February 2021. The tribunal noted that the claimant’s case arose from the same factual matrix as the claims heard by Employment Judge Matthews on 10 February 2022 and that she was entitled to the benefit of that judgment.

The tribunal found that the respondent failed to comply with section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. It held that the claimant’s protective award claim was well founded and ordered remuneration for a protected period of 90 days from 2 February 2021. The extracted text does not state the amount of remuneration.

On unfair dismissal, the tribunal found that the claimant had been unfairly dismissed because there had been no appropriate warning or consultation. However, it made no further award on that claim because the claimant had already received redundancy payment from the Insolvency Service, had received notice pay, and a fair procedure was unlikely to have made any difference to the outcome given the respondent’s insolvency, applying Polkey v AE Dayton Services [1988] ICR 142. The tribunal also made no further award in respect of the breach of contract claim relating to notice and the redundancy payment claim because those payments had already been received from the Insolvency Service.