Miss A Rollins v Utility Alliance Ltd in administration Interested Party: Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy — 2022

Miss A Rollins brought a claim for a protective award under section 189 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 after her employment with Utility Alliance Ltd ended on or about 11 January 2021. She said she had understood that she had been included in the collective claims already presented on behalf of other employees, and only discovered that she was not included after seeing social media posts about successful tribunal claims on 21 or 22 December 2021 and checking with Mr Jonathan Pullarp and ACAS.

The tribunal applied section 189(5) and found that it was not reasonably practicable for the claimant to present her complaint within the original three-month period beginning with 12 February 2021, because she had reasonable grounds for believing that her claim had already been issued. It also found that she presented the claim within such further period as was reasonable, namely within two days of discovering that she had not been included. The tribunal checked the schedule attached to the earlier December 2021 orders and found that her name, and the names of some Newcastle colleagues she identified, were not included.

On the merits, the tribunal found that the respondent had failed to comply with the consultation obligations under sections 188 and 188A in relation to the redundancies, and that the claimant was therefore entitled to a protective award. It ordered remuneration for the protected period of 90 days from 12 February 2021 to 13 May 2021. The claimant stated that her daily rate of pay was £91, producing an award of £8,190, and the order was subject to the Recoupment Regulations.