Mrs B Joyce-Ludlow v Sunrise Senior Living Limited — 2019

The tribunal refused the claimant’s application for reconsideration dated 22 December 2017 because there was no reasonable prospect of the original decision being varied or revoked. The judge said the matters raised in the claimant’s solicitor’s letter had already been taken into account when deciding the Polkey reduction.

In the reasons, the tribunal said it had formed the view that there was a good chance that no improvement would have occurred in the team relationships and that a fair dismissal would have occurred on or around 27 October 2016 in any event. That assessment was based on the state of the team relationship before 15 August 2016, when there were already serious issues within the team.

The tribunal noted that by 10 August 2016 one team member had verbally resigned, another was off sick, and another was looking for another job. On that basis, it considered it unrealistic to expect steps taken by the respondent at that stage to have repaired the team relationship, and it held that a 60% Polkey reduction was appropriate.