Mr Alfred Dorrell v FMS Foils Group Limited — 2022

The claimant, Mr Alfred Dorrell, brought claims of unfair dismissal and direct age discrimination arising from his dismissal by FMS Foils Group Limited on 27 November 2020. The age discrimination complaints were later dismissed on withdrawal on 11 January 2022, leaving the unfair dismissal claim for determination at the merits hearing on 27 and 28 January 2022.

The tribunal accepted that there was a redundancy situation. It found that the respondent had experienced a reduction in sales and business activity during the Covid-19 period, that the need for materials handling work had diminished, and that the respondent had reasonably concluded that it only needed one materials handler rather than two. The tribunal rejected the claimant's arguments that other duties, overtime cover, or later agency and replacement hires meant there had been no redundancy situation.

However, the tribunal held that the dismissal was unfair because the redundancy process was not genuine. Although it accepted that the respondent had consulted the claimant and later offered revised hours, the tribunal concluded that it was more likely that the respondent had already decided in late summer or early autumn 2020 that the claimant would be made redundant. The tribunal placed weight on the lack of meeting notes or confirmatory correspondence, the absence of any use of the earlier staffing matrix, and the fact that no other logistics staff were consulted about alternatives.

The tribunal therefore found the dismissal unfair on procedural grounds, and said the same conclusion followed for the respondent's subsidiary reliance on some other substantial reason. It directed that the matter be listed for a remedy hearing after 28 days. The judgment did not determine any compensation, and it noted that a Polkey reduction might be argued at the remedy stage.