Mrs C Howie v Holloways Of Ludlow Design & Build Ltd — 2020

The respondent accepted that it was in severe financial difficulty from late 2018 and the tribunal found a genuine redundancy situation, with the need for general administrative or project management work having diminished. The claimant’s dismissal was therefore held to be attributable to redundancy, not to pregnancy or maternity leave. By consent, the respondent was also ordered to pay £1,027 gross in respect of unpaid wages and holiday pay, but the judgment did not split that figure between those two heads.

The unfair dismissal complaint succeeded because the tribunal found a total failure to warn and consult the claimant about redundancy. She was kept out of discussions about the company’s financial position, the February 2019 meeting was not treated as redundancy consultation, the 1 April 2019 email gave her the impression she would be returning, and she was then told on 1 July 2019 that her role was redundant with immediate effect. She was not given advance notice of the meeting, the right to be accompanied, or a right of appeal. The tribunal found this unreasonable and unfair under section 98(4) ERA 1996, but also found that she would inevitably have been dismissed after a fair process, so any compensatory award would be limited to the three weeks it would have taken to carry out a proper consultation.

The pregnancy and maternity discrimination complaint succeeded only in part under section 18 EqA 2010. The tribunal held that the claimant was treated unfavourably because she was exercising maternity leave when she was not invited to the December 2018 Christmas drinks and when she was kept out of the loop about the company’s financial position and her likely redundancy. It rejected the other pleaded acts, including the alleged instruction to return equipment, the password issue, the pension issue, the 14 February 2019 email, the KIT day payment issue, and the proposition that the 1 July 2019 dismissal decision itself was taken because of maternity. The tribunal held that the complaint was in time because the conduct amounted to a course of conduct extending over a period ending on 1 July 2019. At the liability hearing it did not quantify compensation, but noted that any injury to feelings award would likely fall around the middle of the lower Vento band and that nursery-fee losses might be recoverable if proved at the remedy hearing.