Case 1404116/2021 · Employment Tribunal
Beverley Cook v Zoe Solomon t/a/ Bleadon Café and 1 other — 2023
- Case reference
- 1404116/2021
- Decision date
- 25 July 2023
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Lumby
Parties
3 namedClaimant
Beverley Cook
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe claimant’s claim form pleaded breach of contract notice pay (£3,564), unlawful deductions from wages (£594), holiday pay (£528) and statutory redundancy pay (£5,346). At the preliminary hearing on 18 July 2023, the tribunal found that she had been employed by the second respondent from 15 July 2009 and transferred to the first respondent on or about 1 July 2015 under TUPE. It found no relevant transfer back to the second respondent in November 2020 or March 2021, so the claim against the second respondent was dismissed.
The tribunal found that the first respondent remained the claimant’s employer, that the café business at the premises had ceased by March 2021, and that the claimant was dismissed by the first respondent on 20 August 2021 for redundancy. It accepted that the claimant had not unreasonably rejected suitable alternative employment and declared that she was entitled to a statutory redundancy payment, to be calculated in due course.
The first respondent later applied for reconsideration, relying on Facebook screenshots and July 2021 correspondence said to show the claimant working for the second respondent. The tribunal refused reconsideration under Rules 70-72, applying the interests of justice and finality principle and the Ladd v Marshall criteria. It held that the emails had already been considered, the Facebook screenshots could have been obtained with reasonable diligence, and the material would not have justified varying or revoking the original decision.
Claims and outcomes
2 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other | The claim against the second respondent was dismissed after the tribunal found there was no relevant TUPE transfer from the first respondent to the second respondent in November 2020 or March 2021 and that the first respondent remained the employer until dismissal. | Dismissed | — | — |
| Redundancy | The tribunal declared the claimant entitled to a statutory redundancy payment following dismissal by the first respondent on 20 August 2021; the amount was to be calculated in due course. The written reasons introduction refers to dismissal on 2 August 2021, but the detailed findings and the reconsideration judgment both use 20 August 2021. | Upheld | — | — |
Legal tests applied
12 references- TUPE relevant transfer
- Botzen assignment test
- s.139 ERA 1996 redundancy
- Brown v Southall and Knight
- s.141 ERA 1996 suitable alternative employment
- Jones v Aston Cabinet Co Ltd
- Executors of JF Everest v Cox
- Rule 70 interests of justice
- Rule 72 reconsideration process
- Outasight VB Ltd v Brown
- Ebury Partners UK Ltd v Acton Davis
- Ladd v Marshall
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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