Claimant v Pure Contract Furniture Ltd (In Voluntary Liquidation) and The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy — 2020

This was a consent judgment on a joint application by the claimants and the first respondent, Pure Contract Furniture Limited (in voluntary liquidation). The tribunal granted permission for the claims listed in the schedule to proceed against the first respondent and lifted the moratorium in relation to those claims, with the insolvency practitioners of the first respondent having granted consent.

The tribunal recorded that the first respondent had failed to adequately comply with section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. On that basis, the claim for a protective award under section 189 of the same Act succeeded. The tribunal ordered the first respondent to pay remuneration to the claimants named in the schedule for a protected period of 56 days beginning on 14 February 2020, being the date on which the first of the dismissals to which the complaint related took effect.

The judgment also stated that, subject to the normal categories of preferential debts in Schedule 6 to the Insolvency Act 1986, any payments made by the first respondent rather than the Secretary of State pursuant to the judgment would be paid as an unsecured dividend. No order for costs was made, and no judgment was made against the second respondent, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.