Ms L Scott v O Heap & Son (Derby) Ltd — 2021

Ms L Scott brought a claim of automatic unfair dismissal arising from her dismissal on 15 September 2020. She said the respondent dismissed her because she had taken the previous day off work to care for her son, who was too ill to attend school. The respondent said the dismissal was for redundancy. The claimant accepted that she did not have two years' continuity of employment. The tribunal referred to the Employment Rights Act 1996, including s.57A and s.99.

The tribunal found that the respondent had been adversely affected by the pandemic and had suffered a significant reduction in work. It accepted evidence that on 11 September 2020 Mr Parkin and Ms Slater decided that redundancies were necessary, and that the claimant was selected because she had been employed for the shortest time. The intended dismissal on 14 September 2020 was postponed until the following day because of the claimant's absence from work.

On those findings, the tribunal held that the reason for dismissal was redundancy and not the claimant's failure to attend work on 14 September 2020. The automatic unfair dismissal claim was therefore dismissed. The respondent's application for costs was refused because key evidence supporting its defence was not adduced until witnesses gave evidence at the hearing, including evidence that the dismissal decision had been made before 14 September 2020.