Mr Gary Graham v Emcor UK — 2023

The claimant brought a single claim of unfair dismissal arising from redundancy. The tribunal found that the principal reason for dismissal was redundancy, not the claimant's poor health, although it accepted that health concerns may have played a part in some scoring decisions.

The tribunal found the dismissal unfair in three respects: Mr Holpin should not have been appointed as a scorer because he lacked sufficient direct knowledge of the claimant's work; consultation was not fair and proper because the selection decision had effectively been made before the claimant had the information needed to contest it; and the appeal did not investigate the claimant's principal concern that his discussion about stress and health had led to dismissal.

On remedy, the tribunal applied a Polkey reduction, finding an 85% chance that dismissal would have occurred in any event after a fair process, but one week later. The claimant received a statutory redundancy payment, so the basic award was nil. The tribunal awarded £350 for loss of statutory employment rights and £3,780.86 as the compensatory award, and declined to award compensation for ongoing mental wellbeing impact because it had no power to make a personal injury award in an unfair redundancy case.