Mr G Sittampalam v Credit Suisse Services, AG London Branch — 2021

Mr Sittampalam brought the proceedings in a representative capacity in relation to the June 2020 redundancy round in the QAT section of Credit Suisse Services, AG London Branch. The tribunal found that 36 redundancies were proposed across the corporate functions, 7 of them in QAT, and that 7 QAT employees were ultimately dismissed as redundant. The case did not concern individual consultation with those employees, who later settled their own claims by compromise agreements.

On the section 188 complaint, the tribunal accepted the respondent's concessions that it had failed to disclose in writing the reasons for the proposals, the numbers and descriptions of employees proposed to be dismissed, the total number of employees of the relevant description, and the proposed method of selecting employees. It found that consultation began in good time and that the respondent did consult about avoiding dismissals and mitigating consequences, but not meaningfully about reducing the numbers to be dismissed because the statutory disclosure was deficient. The respondent's confidentiality justification was rejected, and the tribunal said the breaches were significant given the respondent's earlier 2017 proceedings and its HR resources.

Applying section 189 and the authorities it cited, including UK Coal Mining, EP Vardy, Susie Radin and Smith v Cherry Lewis, the tribunal made a protective award for a 45-day protected period limited to QAT employees dismissed in the June 2020 round. It also imposed a £20,000 penalty under section 12A of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996, finding aggravating features in the repetition of the same failures after the 2017 case and noting that the respondent was able to pay.