Mrs Maria Thomas v Shaw Trust Limited (The) — 2021

The tribunal found that the claimant was dismissed for a genuine redundancy situation arising from a downturn and restructuring, which the claimant herself accepted. The issue was therefore whether the respondent acted reasonably in treating redundancy as a sufficient reason for dismissal.

On alternative employment, the tribunal found that the respondent took reasonable steps to identify and communicate available roles, invited expressions of interest, reminded the claimant about the application deadline, and interviewed her for the Commercial Partnership Manager role. It concluded that the respondent acted proactively and that the claimant had opportunities to pursue other roles but did not do so.

The tribunal also found the interview and scoring process for the alternative role was fair, with an experienced panel, reasonable questions, and a moderated scoring exercise. It rejected the claimant's complaints about the appeal stages, holding that Richard Clifton was an appropriate person to review the selection decision, that the written appeal process was fair in the circumstances, and that the later appeal against dismissal was also handled reasonably. The claim for unfair dismissal was therefore dismissed.