Ms C McVay v Short Richardson and Forth Limited In Voluntary Liquidation — 2023

The tribunal entered judgment under Rule 21 after no response was presented by the respondent, whose liquidator had indicated that the claim would not be admitted or defended. It found that the respondent proposed to dismiss 20 or more employees as redundant and failed to carry out proper collective consultation or consult the claimant between 5 September 2022 and 30 September 2022. The tribunal therefore found a breach of section 188 TULRCA and made a protective award for the maximum protected period of 90 days beginning on 30 September 2022.

On wrongful dismissal, the tribunal was not satisfied that the claimant had a contractual entitlement to three months' notice and found that she was entitled only to six weeks' statutory notice under section 86 ERA. After giving credit for notice pay already received from the Redundancy Payments Service and for earnings from new employment during the notice period, the tribunal awarded £2,307.72 gross. On holiday pay, it accepted the Insolvency Service figure of 14.93 days' accrued leave, credited the partial payment already received, and awarded £2,202.34 net.

The unfair dismissal claim was dismissed. The tribunal accepted redundancy as the reason for dismissal, treated it as a potentially fair reason, and found on the evidence before it that the respondent acted reasonably in dismissing for redundancy and that no alternative employment was shown to be available. It also found a failure to provide written particulars under section 1 ERA and awarded two weeks' pay capped at £571 per week, totalling £1,142. No award was made for pension contributions.