Case 3302803/2021 · Employment Tribunal
Miss Sonja Singels, Mr Edward Rowland, and Mr Richard Lowndes v Cobalt Ground Solutions Ltd Heard by CVP on 3 and 4 May 2023 — 2020
- Case reference
- 3302803/2021
- Decision date
- 19 March 2020
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Miss Sonja Singels, Mr Edward Rowland, and Mr Richard Lowndes
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe tribunal accepted that by March 2020 the respondent's need for Passenger Services Duty Officers had ceased or diminished, that a genuine redundancy situation existed, and that the PSDO role remained absent from the respondent's structure after the dismissals. It found that the claimants were adequately warned and consulted in March 2020, again on 6 August 2020 after the initial furlough period, and then in the final consultations in December 2020. It rejected the submission that the claimants had to be pooled with Duty Managers, with other Duty Officers outside passenger services, or with Passenger Services Supervisors, and it also rejected arguments that they should have been trained for other roles, bumped into other posts, or offered the Baggage Supervisor role given to Mr A Spragg.
Claims and outcomes
4 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unfair dismissal | Miss S Singels: the tribunal found a genuine redundancy situation but held the dismissal was procedurally unfair because the respondent dismissed before exhausting the second grievance appeal; compensation was limited to furlough pay for 1 January 2021 to 28 February 2021. | Upheld | — | £3,676 |
| Unfair dismissal | Mr E Rowland: same unfair dismissal finding and award; the tribunal applied the recoupment regulations, recording a prescribed amount equal to the award and a nil balance over the prescribed amount. | Upheld | — | £3,648 |
| Unfair dismissal | Mr R Lowndes: same unfair dismissal finding; the £3,784 furlough-pay figure was reduced by £756 for agency earnings during Jan-Feb 2021, and the recoupment regulations were applied with a prescribed amount equal to the award and a nil balance over the prescribed amount. | Upheld | — | £3,028 |
| Unlawful deduction from wages | Ms S Singels' bonus and overtime claims were dismissed. The tribunal found her furlough arrangement capped her pay and substituted for other entitlements, that she had already been paid bonus pro rata for January to March 2020 and the notice period, and that she had elected to bank the 72 hours overtime as time off in lieu. | Dismissed | — | — |
Remedy
Monetary award- Total award
- £10,352
- across all upheld claims
- Compensatory award
- £10,352
- compensatory remedy recorded
Legal tests applied
11 references- s.139(1) ERA 1996
- s.98(1) and (2) ERA 1996
- s.98(4) ERA 1996
- Polkey v A E Dayton Services Ltd
- R v British Coal Corp ex parte Price
- Thomas Betts Manufacturing Ltd v Harding
- British Steel PLC v Robertson
- Barratt Construction v Dalrymple
- Byrne v Arvin Meritor LVS Ltd
- Drake International Systems Ltd v O'Hare
- King v Eaton Ltd No 2
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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