Keith Martindale & ors Respondent (1): Paramount Timber Frame Limited (in liquidation) Respondent (2): Secretary of State for Business and Trade v Not attending — 2024

The tribunal found that the first respondent failed to comply adequately with section 188(1) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. The claimants, comprising the named claimants in Annex 1 and other employees from one establishment, had been dismissed by reason of redundancy on 18 October 2022. The judgment records that there was no consultation at all, and that there was no trade union and no elected employee representative.

On that basis, the claimants' claims for a protective award under section 189 TULR(C)A succeeded. The tribunal noted that the first respondent ceased trading and went into liquidation on 9 November 2022. It also recorded that protective awards are punitive rather than compensatory, and awarded the maximum protected period of 90 days' gross pay beginning on 18 October 2022. The judgment further records that any payment made by the first respondent pursuant to the award would rank as an unsecured dividend subject to the normal preferential debts, and that the Employment Protection (Recoupment of Jobseeker's Allowance and Income Support) Regulations 1996 apply.