Mrs S Yates v Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust — 2023

Mrs Yates was employed on a fixed-term Band 8A role as Clinical Programme Manager for End-of-Life Care, due to end on 30 September 2020. It was common ground that her dismissal was by reason of redundancy. The only issue was whether Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had offered her suitable alternative employment, and if so whether she had unreasonably refused it, under section 141 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

The tribunal held that the proposed Band 7 senior specialist nurse role in palliative medicine was not suitable alternative employment. It found that Mrs Yates did not have the clinical skills or experience for the post, that substantial retraining would have been needed over a period measured in years, including postgraduate study, and that the respondent had acknowledged the role would need to be backfilled while she came up to speed. The tribunal also accepted that the role would involve a substantial loss of status for her within a team she had previously managed.

The tribunal also held that the proposed Band 8A Deputy Operational Services Manager role was not suitable alternative employment. A central issue was Mrs Yates’s concern that the role would not attract Special Class Status pension treatment, which she genuinely believed her existing role had carried. The tribunal found that the respondent had not confirmed the position with NHS Business Services Authority before the termination of employment, and that the claimant was entitled to take the lack of confirmation into account. The tribunal also noted that the role appeared to be a management post rather than one preserving the nursing element that mattered to her career.

On that basis, the tribunal concluded that neither alternative post was suitable alternative employment and that Mrs Yates had not unreasonably refused either offer. It therefore held that she was entitled to a statutory redundancy payment, which the parties agreed at £13,988.