Mrs S Eardley v Testerworld Limited — 2024

The claimant brought a complaint under section 189 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 alleging that the respondent failed to comply with section 188 consultation requirements in respect of the claimant's redundancy dismissal. The respondent's administrators consented to the claim continuing, and the respondent did not present a response.

On the available material, the Tribunal found that as at 9 May 2022 the respondent proposed to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees within 90 days at the Rokeby Court, Runcorn depot and 20 or more employees at the Trafford Park depot. The claimant was an affected employee and was dismissed as redundant on 5 August 2022. There was no recognised independent trade union for the claimant's employee description, no existing authorised employee representatives, and no representatives elected for section 188 purposes; the respondent did not invite affected employees to elect such representatives.

The Tribunal found that the respondent failed to comply with section 188, had not shown special circumstances making compliance not reasonably practicable, and that the complaint was presented in time. Having found no consultation at all and no mitigating circumstances, the Tribunal made a protective award for the maximum protected period of 90 days, beginning on 5 August 2022.