In person For the v Mr Joshi, advocate — 2022

The claimant, Mr H Wynne, worked for Fitness 24 Limited as a Membership Advisor from 9 December 2019 until his dismissal on 4 March 2022. The tribunal found that the respondent's Aldershot site had been materially affected by the covid-19 pandemic, with membership falling by about 40 percent by April 2021 and weekly turnover reduced from about £35,000 pre-pandemic to about £18,000 after reopening. It accepted that the respondent was in a serious financial position and that redundancy was a genuine business response to those circumstances.

The tribunal found that the respondent had decided to make one person redundant from a pool of two membership advisory staff, after deciding to focus on service quality and to exclude the site manager and fitness coach from the pool. It accepted that the respondent carried out a consultation process, including a risk-scoring exercise undertaken with the claimant, and that the claimant raised concerns about some of his scores. The tribunal also found that the respondent had considered other steps and savings within the limits of its size and resources.

On the unfair dismissal issue, the tribunal held that redundancy was a potentially fair reason for dismissal under section 98(2)(c) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and that the respondent acted reasonably in treating it as sufficient reason for dismissal under section 98(4). It rejected the claimant's case that the redundancy process was unfair, noting that the consultation, scoring exercise, alternative training enquiry, and appeal all supported the fairness of the process. The claimant's appeal was heard by Mr Deegan and was upheld by him, but the tribunal nevertheless concluded that the dismissal itself was fair and dismissed the claim.