Miss R Wilson (1) Ms F Khan (2) v Nottingham City Council — 2020

The claimants were employed on fixed-term contracts in roles funded by Arts Council England. The tribunal found that the relevant funding ended on 31 March 2018 and that a wider Museums and Galleries restructure was taking place because of changes to funding, the closure of Nottingham Castle, market conditions and local government funding reductions. It accepted that the respondent considered roles across the service, including fixed-term roles, and that the claimants' roles were not sufficiently similar to roles in the new structure to be mapped across.

The tribunal found that both claimants were included in collective consultation and had individual consultation. Although the respondent did not expressly give a written right of appeal against dismissal, it dealt with the claimants' grievance appeal concerning the redundancy process. The tribunal found the consultation meaningful, found redundancy was the reason for dismissal, and held that the dismissals were within the range of reasonable responses.

The Regulation 3 fixed-term employee claims failed because the tribunal found the claimants were not treated less favourably than comparable permanent employees, including in relation to consultation, mapping into new roles, grievance handling, and Ms Wilson's eventual three-day Museum Events Assistant role with weekend work. Ms Wilson's Regulation 6 detriment claim failed because the tribunal found that the alleged comments and conduct by Ms Evans did not happen.

Ms Khan's disability claims failed because the tribunal found the respondent did not have actual or constructive knowledge of her hypothyroidism during the relevant period from 22 February to 31 March 2018, and could not reasonably have been expected to know. The tribunal also found she was aware of redeployment opportunities and deadlines and had not engaged with the redeployment process before or during her sickness absence.