Mrs L James v H Docherty Ltd (in administration) — 2019

This was a Rule 21 hearing of Mrs James’s claim for a protective award against H Docherty Ltd (in administration). The tribunal identified the issues under s.188 and s.189 TULRCA, including whether there was a proposal to dismiss 20 or more employees as redundant at one establishment, and whether any special circumstances or reasonably practicable steps mattered. It concluded that those further issues did not arise because the threshold question was not met.

The tribunal found that the respondent had a head office in Birmingham with more than 20 employees, and branch offices including Leeds, Warrington and Gateshead, each with between 4 and 7 employees. Mrs James worked as an Area Sales Manager from October 2018, worked from home over a northern patch, and her business went through either the Warrington or Leeds branch depending on the customer location. Applying the case law on "establishment", the tribunal held that she was not assigned to head office. It found instead that she was assigned to Leeds and/or Warrington, where she worked day to day, serviced existing clients, generated new business, and did not regularly attend head office.

The tribunal said she was managed on her own patch and her business went through the books of the two branches for which she was responsible, while occasional meetings at head office and occasional leads from head office were not enough to make head office the establishment to which she was assigned. As the duty to consult under s.188 TULRCA did not apply to her, the protective award claim failed and was dismissed. No award was made.