Mrs A Falkowska-Tumiel First v BM Jewels of London Ltd (in voluntary liquidation) Second Respondent: Studio 13 Jewellery Ltd Third Respondent: The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy — 2019

The claimant had worked for the first respondent since 29 January 2007 as an office manager on £22,100 a year. The tribunal found that there was a relevant transfer of the undertaking from the first respondent to the second respondent on 2 April 2018 for TUPE purposes. It reached that conclusion because the business continued at the same premises with the same facilities, the same customers and most of the same employees; the main changes were the company name and the sole shareholder.

The tribunal found that the claimant was employed by the first respondent immediately before the transfer and was dismissed at the end of the last trading day of the first respondent, 29 March 2018. It held that the transfer was the principal reason for the dismissal. In reaching that conclusion, the tribunal relied on the close proximity between dismissal and transfer and Mr Burchell's evidence that he dismissed the claimant after being told by the liquidators to release anyone they did not want to keep. It rejected the redundancy explanation because there was no evidence of a genuine need to reduce the workforce.