Mr D Crowther Mr J Ellard Mr K Hulse Mr M Higgins Mr R Leavey Ms K McCluskie Mr N Yoxall Mr L Warren Mr J Lowe v Alliance Transport Technologies Limited (in Administration) and 1 other — 2024

This was a one-day hearing about whether the claimants were entitled to a protective award for failure to consult over collective redundancies under sections 188 and 189 of TULRCA 1992. Alliance Transport Technologies Limited employed 51 staff across Chesterfield and Pontefract. In April 2023 the company entered a notice of intention process, administrators were appointed on 2 May 2023, and the tribunal accepted that the administrators were seeking to sell the business as a going concern while making some immediate redundancies.

The tribunal said it was not necessary to decide whether there was one establishment or two because all claimants were assigned to Chesterfield. Applying UK Coal Mining Limited v NUM (Northumberland Area) and another, it held that a proposal to dismiss requires a fixed, clear, albeit provisional intention to make redundancies. On the evidence, that intention had not arisen when the administrators were engaged and appointed, because the business was still being marketed for sale and the redundancy plan for the majority of staff had not yet crystallised.

Mr Ellard, Mr Warren and Mr Hulse were dismissed on 2 May 2023, when only 15 employees had been identified as non-critical. The tribunal held that this did not amount to a proposal to dismiss 20 or more employees within 90 days, so their claims were dismissed. The remaining claimants were dismissed on 5 May 2023, after the final interested party declined to make an offer for the business, and the tribunal found that representatives should have been elected and informed and collective consultation should have taken place; none of that occurred, so those claims succeeded.

The judgment contains an inconsistency on the protected period. The formal order states that the protected period is 45 days, but paragraph 28 of the reasons states that, in the absence of further evidence, the protected period is 90 days. No monetary award is set out in the extracted text.