Maxime Bedouet & others v Power By Britisvolt Limited (in Administration) — 2023

The respondent company entered administration on 16 January 2023. A claim form was presented on 14 February 2023 by Thompsons on behalf of 53 individual claimants, later amended to add further claimants, bringing the total to 81 individual claimants and 82 claims because Mr Bedouet was named twice. The administrators did not file a response, and on 5 April 2023 they conceded liability for failure to inform and consult under section 188 Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and accepted that a protective award should be made. The Secretary of State was added as an interested party and made submissions but did not support or resist the claims.

Proceeding under rule 21 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013, the tribunal satisfied itself on the available material that the claimants were eligible to bring the claims. It accepted the unchallenged account that all claimants were based at the respondent's Blyth premises, that the establishment employed significantly more than 20 employees, and that the respondent proposed to dismiss as redundant employees within a period of 90 days. The tribunal also accepted that there were no employee representatives appointed or elected for consultation, that no arrangements had been made for their appointment, and that there was no recognised trade union.

The tribunal held that the respondent failed to comply with section 188 TULRCA and that a protective award under section 189 was appropriate. Applying the statutory scheme and the authorities it cited on the meaning of 'establishment' and on protective awards, including Martime Ltd v Nautilus International, Rockfon, Athinaiki Chartopoiia, and Susie Radin Ltd v GMB & Others, the tribunal concluded that the claimants worked at a single establishment and that the consultation duty had not been met. It therefore made a protective award with a protected period beginning on 17 January 2023 and lasting 56 days.

In fixing the period at 56 days, the tribunal noted that both the claimants' solicitors and the liquidators had agreed that length, and it considered that agreement, the seriousness of the unchallenged failures, and the parties' access to professional advice. The judgment records an order that the respondent pay remuneration to the claimants for the 56-day protected period, but it does not set out a single global monetary figure in the extracted text.