Mr K Biggs and 38 others (see attached schedule) v R1: Staveley Head Limited (in Administration) R2: The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy R3: One Sure Insurance Limited — 2022

The case concerned 41 former employees of Staveley Head Limited. After the company lost the Gefion contract in autumn 2019, it announced a redundancy exercise on 24 January 2020, went into administration on 5 February 2020, and dismissed the claimants that day. One Sure Insurance Limited later bought assets of the company on 3 April 2020. By the final hearing, only the TULRCA collective consultation claim and the TUPE Regulation 13 inform-and-consult claim remained, after two claimants withdrew their complaints.

On the TULRCA claim, the Tribunal found that the First Respondent had dismissed 20 or more employees at one establishment within 90 days and had not properly elected employee representatives. It held that the election process was not fair or reasonably practicable because the timescale was too short, the employer had not shown what it had done to identify and inform all affected employees, some staff had no remote access, and there was no evidence of how absent employees could vote. The Tribunal also found there was no meaningful consultation: the employees' 127 questions were not answered, no individual consultation meetings were held, and the assurances given on 24 January 2020 were not carried through.

Applying Susie Radin Ltd v GMB and others, the Tribunal started from the maximum protective period and reduced it by one week for mitigation, including the earlier redundancy warning, the attempted appointment of representatives, the presence of Sandy Windmill, and the preparation of a response to the questions. It therefore made a protective award of 12 weeks, or 84 days, for the 39 claimants listed in Schedule A. The judgment states that recoupment provisions apply to the award.

The TUPE claim under Regulation 13 failed. The Tribunal found that the claimants were not affected employees at the time of the transfer because they had already been dismissed on 5 February 2020 for redundancy, before the 3 April 2020 sale to One Sure Insurance Limited. It accepted the administrator's evidence that he had not heard of One Sure at the time of dismissal and was acting to reduce wages and preserve assets as the insurance book diminished. The Tribunal held that the sole or principal reason for the dismissals was redundancy, not the transfer, and therefore liability for the TULRCA complaint did not pass to One Sure.