Mr M Roberts v Signet Trading Ltd — 2021

The claimant, Mr M Roberts, had worked for Signet Trading Ltd since 1 August 2005 and was the manager of the Ernest Jones store in the Millgate Shopping Centre, Bury. The respondent decided in May 2020 to close that store and dismissed him for redundancy with effect from 1 June 2020. The tribunal accepted that there was a redundancy situation within s.139(1)(a)(ii) ERA 1996 and that redundancy was the principal reason for dismissal.

The dismissal was found to be unfair because the respondent did not carry out meaningful consultation at a formative stage about which of the two Bury stores should close, and did not consult properly about the pool of employees from which redundancies would be drawn. The claimant was told only in generic terms that the store was closing, was given FAQ documents that did not explain why the Ernest Jones store had been selected, and his query about that point was not taken up with senior management. The tribunal was not satisfied that pooling had been considered before dismissal, and it regarded the later pooling document as post-event material that did not show that the issue had been addressed at the time.

On remedy, the tribunal found that if proper consultation had taken place the claimant would still have been dismissed for redundancy, but about two weeks later. It therefore awarded compensation equivalent to two weeks' pay, agreed at £893.92, as the compensatory award only. No basic award was made because the claimant had already received a redundancy payment, the tribunal rejected any contributory conduct reduction, and it stated that the recoupment regulations applied. The claimant's other claims were withdrawn and dismissed upon withdrawal, and the judgment records an agreement on the unpaid pension contribution issue.