Case 2416943/2018 · Employment Tribunal
Mrs A France Miss J Hillbeck Miss K Hall v Nacro — 2019
- Case reference
- 2416943/2018
- Decision date
- 25 October 2019
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Humble REPRESENTATION
- Venue
- Carlisle Combined Court
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Mrs A France Miss J Hillbeck Miss K Hall
Respondent
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe tribunal heard claims from Mrs Ami France, Ms Jane Hillbeck and Ms Kirsten Hall, all of whom worked at the respondent's Barrow-in-Furness Centre. It found that the respondent decided by 25 May 2018 to close the Centre by September 2018, that the Centre had been operating at a loss, and that redundancy was therefore the potentially fair reason for dismissal under section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
The tribunal accepted that there were procedural defects in the redundancy process. The claimants were not given the full consultation document at the outset, there were some delays in answering consultation questions, and some documents contained errors. It also found that the respondent's redundancy and restructuring policy was non-contractual, so the non-payment of a discretionary severance payment did not amount to a breach of contract or, by itself, make the dismissal unfair. The tribunal further found that there was one alternative role in Carlisle, but the claimants were not interested in it because of the travel involved.
The decisive issue was warning and consultation. The tribunal found that there was a 20-day delay between the closure decision and the first warning given to the claimants on 14 June 2018, and that they should reasonably have been warned by about 30 May 2018. Although it ultimately held that the respondent did properly consider the claimants' counter-proposal in early July 2018, it concluded that the lack of adequate warning meant the dismissals fell outside the range of reasonable responses. The tribunal therefore held that all three claimants were unfairly dismissed.
On remedy, the tribunal indicated that compensation for loss of earnings should be limited to two weeks' pay, subject to mitigation and offset against redundancy payments, and that there may also be some additional compensation for loss of statutory rights. It directed that the case be listed for a separate remedy hearing, so no final monetary award was determined in this judgment.
Claims and outcomes
1 finding recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unfair dismissal | Applies to Mrs Ami France, Ms Jane Hillbeck and Ms Kirsten Hall. Liability only: the tribunal found redundancy was the reason for dismissal but held the dismissals unfair because warning was not given as soon as reasonably possible and consultation began after a delay; remedy was left to a later hearing. | Upheld | — | — |
Legal tests applied
8 references- section 98(1) and (2) Employment Rights Act 1996
- section 98(4) Employment Rights Act 1996
- section 139(1) Employment Rights Act 1996
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Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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