in person For the v African Caribbean Day Nursery and Secretary of State for Business and Trade — 2025

The three claimants were employed by the first respondent at a children's nursery. The first respondent was struck off the Companies House register on 26 March 2024 and dissolved on 2 April 2024, but the claimants continued working and being paid until 13 June 2024, when they were told their employment had been terminated by reason of redundancy and directed to the Redundancy Payment Scheme. The claimants made references to the tribunal under s170 Employment Rights Act 1996 seeking confirmation of their entitlement and the amounts payable, and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade was joined as second respondent.

Employment Judge W Anderson found that, on the basis of the redundancy letters issued on 13 June 2024, the first respondent is liable to pay each claimant an employer's payment in the form of a redundancy payment under s166(1)(a) and (2)(a) Employment Rights Act 1996. The judge accepted that, given the dissolution and the unequivocal direction to the Redundancy Payment Scheme, the claimants had taken all reasonable steps to recover the payment short of legal proceedings.

The payments were calculated from the information in the redundancy letters: £1,304.16 to S Bakari, £5,175.60 to M Ritchie and £11,509.72 to B Jennings. The judge took the effective redundancy date as 2 April 2024 on the basis that the first respondent could not have lawfully traded after that date, notwithstanding that the letters identified a different redundancy date for one claimant and that the claimants had worked and been paid up to 13 June 2024.