Susan Coulson v RentPlus UK Ltd — 2020

Ms Coulson joined RentPlus in 2015 in a senior role on £95,000 plus a £5,000 car allowance. The tribunal accepted that her work covered PR and communications, IT, and contribution to strategic development, and found that after Steven Collins became CEO in October 2017 she was marginalised. It also found, on the evidence of David Marshall, that the board had already decided in March 2017 that her post would be removed, although that was not disclosed to her.

The tribunal found that the consultation begun on 16 April 2018 was not a genuine redundancy process. The opening letter referred to redundancies and cost cutting, but the tribunal held that RentPlus was in fact expanding after the £11m investment, recruiting new staff and opening a Milton Keynes office, while Ms Coulson’s responsibilities were being reassigned. It found that she was not given the business case or other key documents, promised follow-up meetings were not arranged, and the grievance and appeal process relied on Peninsular and HRFace2Face, which the tribunal did not accept was independent.

On unfair dismissal, the tribunal held that the reason for dismissal was not redundancy but a desire to remove Ms Coulson from her role. It found there was no Polkey reduction because it could not say what would have happened under a fair procedure. The tribunal therefore upheld the unfair dismissal claim and ordered a 25% uplift to compensation, with the amount to be determined at the remedy hearing.

On sex discrimination, the tribunal found facts from which discrimination could be inferred, including that Ms Coulson was the only woman in a senior position and that the handling of the process was materially flawed. The majority held that RentPlus had not rebutted the inference that the dismissal was tainted by sex discrimination. Mr Howard dissented on that issue. The tribunal therefore upheld the sex discrimination claim and listed the case for a remedy hearing.