Ms Rokad counsel For the v Mr Francis counsel — 2022

Mr Paul Thorpe was employed by Burrana Limited as President EMEA from 15 May 2014. When the airline industry was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, and against the background of existing financial pressure, the respondent put staff on a company stand-down arrangement and then moved the claimant onto furlough from 17 April 2020. The tribunal found that he continued to be involved in emails and calls about the EMEA team, but that this did not mean he had agreed to the furlough variation of his contract.

On the wages claim, the tribunal distinguished between the earlier stand-down period and the later furlough period. It found that the claimant had understood the March 2020 stand-down, had said he was "OK without changes", and had agreed to deductions to recover the April 2020 overpayment. Those deductions were not unlawful. By contrast, for the period from 17 April 2020 until termination on 30 October 2020, the respondent had not sought or obtained the claimant's agreement to the furlough reduction in pay, and the tribunal held that the salary reductions during that period were unlawful deductions from wages.

On unfair dismissal, the tribunal accepted that the respondent faced a genuine redundancy situation because the business had seen a significant decline in work and the requirement for three regional Presidents had ceased or diminished. However, the dismissal process was unfair: the claimant was told on 9 June 2020 that he had been selected for redundancy with no prior consultation, no pooling exercise, no selection criteria and no consideration of alternative employment. The appeal process did not cure those defects. Applying Polkey v A E Dayton Services Ltd, the tribunal held that a fair process would probably have kept the claimant employed for a further four weeks, but would not have prevented redundancy altogether. The parties were invited to agree compensation, failing which the case was to be listed for a remedy hearing.