Miss C Hunt, of Counsel For the v Respondent — 2020

The claimant had been accepted for voluntary redundancy from her Principal Environmental Health Officer post during the respondent's 2018 restructure, with a redundancy notice dated 24 April 2018 and a planned leaving date of 30 September 2018. The dispute was whether later discussions about the HS2 Community Environmental Health Officer role meant that she had been re-engaged so that section 138 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 removed her right to a redundancy payment.

The tribunal found that the 22 June 2018 discussion, and the later emails, amounted to an agreement in principle only. It found there was no intention to create legal relations at that stage, no agreed start date, and no completed formal offer or signed contract. The later offer letter of 7 September 2018 was not signed by the claimant, and the tribunal accepted that there were differences between the proposed HS2 role and her previous terms, including the hours of work.

On the factual question of what work the claimant actually did between 25 June and 30 September 2018, the tribunal found that she was carrying out transitional work and urgent HS2 matters while continuing her other noise and environmental duties, rather than starting the full-time HS2 role. It rejected the respondent's case that she had effectively taken up the new post. The tribunal therefore held that section 138 was not triggered, the redundancy notice remained effective, and the claimant had not resigned.

The tribunal concluded that the claimant was entitled to a statutory redundancy payment, and the amount agreed between the parties was £12,446.