Mr. J Huang v W.WingYip (London) Limited — 2020

Mr J Huang was employed by W.WingYip (London) Limited as a shop assistant from 28 November 2005 until 24 November 2020. The tribunal found that the business was substantially affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, that the requirements of the business for work of a particular kind had diminished, and that there was a genuine redundancy situation. It found that the claimant was placed in the correct retail pool and that the respondent had considered ways of avoiding redundancies before deciding to reduce headcount across several departments.

The tribunal accepted that the respondent carried out collective and individual consultation, used agreed scoring criteria, and applied those criteria through managers who had working knowledge of the claimant. It found that the claimant had the opportunity to make representations, that his scoring was reviewed, that his appeal was heard and dismissed, and that he was later offered vacant roles which he declined because they were lower paid and he did not speak sufficiently good English. On that basis, the tribunal held that the dismissal was fair and that the unfair dismissal claim failed.

The wrongful dismissal claim failed because the claimant's contract provided for 12 weeks' notice and the tribunal found that the statutory notice period mirrored that entitlement. The claimant confirmed that he had been paid 12 weeks' notice, so there was no breach of contract. The age discrimination claim also failed: the tribunal found that the claimant did not actually contend that he was selected because of age, that age and length of service were not part of the agreed selection criteria, and that the redundancy data showed a mixed age profile among those selected and retained. No remedy was awarded.