Mr J Hegarty v Penny Post Credit Union — 2023

Mr Hegarty had been CEO of Voyager Alliance Credit Union and signed a contract on 19 October 2017 which the tribunal held was later adopted by the board when Mr Robertson met Mr Hegarty and Mr McDonald on 20 October 2017 and authorised the pay rise on the basis that a signed agreement was in place. The tribunal therefore found that the contractual notice term was 12 months for remedy purposes, although no final compensation figure was set in this liability judgment.

On the TUPE issue, the tribunal found that the redundancy decision taken on 3 March 2021 was driven by the respondent's serious financial difficulties and need to reduce costs, not by the proposed transfer to Transave. The transfer and redundancy were discussed at the same board meeting and Mr Robertson accepted making a comment that Transave would not want another CEO, but the tribunal held there was no sufficient link between the proposed transfer and the dismissal. The claim under Regulation 7(1) TUPE 2006 was dismissed.

The tribunal upheld the ordinary unfair dismissal claim under s.94 and s.98 ERA 1996. It found that the later disciplinary allegations about communications with the PRA, FCA, the Financial Ombudsman Service and ABCUL were not the genuine reason for dismissal, and that several of the matters had already been known to the board or were not sufficiently serious to justify dismissal. The tribunal found that the respondent had instead moved away from redundancy because of concern about the termination cost, including the possibility of 12 months' notice pay, and because the grievance had caused ill-feeling among board members.

For Polkey purposes, the tribunal found that Mr Hegarty would in any event have been fairly dismissed for redundancy on 9 April 2021. It found that he would have been entitled on that basis to a statutory redundancy payment and to 12 months' notice or payment in lieu of notice, but the amount of compensation was not fixed because it was left to a later remedy hearing.