Claimant v Testerworld Ltd (in administration) and Secretary of State for Business and Trade — 2023

The tribunal considered complaints by three claimants, V Critchley, S Reid and N Davies, against Testerworld Limited (in administration) under section 189 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. The respondent did not present a response, and the tribunal determined the matter on the available material under Rule 21. It found that on 9 May 2022 the respondent was proposing to dismiss as redundant, within a period of 90 days or less, 20 or more employees assigned to its Trafford Park depot, and that the claimants were employees who may be affected by those proposed dismissals and were dismissed as redundant on that date.

The tribunal found that the respondent was required to consult appropriate representatives under section 188, but that there were no recognised trade union representatives, no elected employee representatives for section 188 purposes, and no invitation to the affected employees to elect such representatives. It also found that the respondent had not shown any special circumstances rendering compliance not reasonably practicable. The claims under section 189 were therefore well founded.

Having regard to the seriousness of the default and the guidance in GMB v Susie Radin Ltd, the tribunal said there had been no consultation at all and no mitigating circumstances. It therefore made a protective award under section 189(3) for the maximum protected period of 90 days beginning on 9 May 2022, with recoupment applying under the Employment Protection (Recoupment of Jobseeker's Allowance and Income Support) Regulations 1996. The judgment records that each claimant is entitled to a payment equivalent to remuneration for that protected period, but it does not quantify the monetary amount in the extracted text.