Mr P Jones For the v Mr J Wilson — 2020

The claimant, Mr P Jones, was employed by Canon Europe Ltd from 8 May 2001 until 30 April 2019. He had been Digital Systems and Publishing Manager from 1 April 2016. A restructuring of the business began in autumn 2018, the redundancy selection criterion was whether a role would change by more than 50%, and that criterion was not disputed as fair. Consultation took place at meetings on 4 October, 10 October and 2 November 2018, after which the respondent concluded that redundancy applied and dismissed him when he did not secure alternative employment.

The tribunal rejected the claimant’s case that the redundancy process was unfair because the managers involved in the restructure were not sufficiently knowledgeable. It found it reasonable for the respondent to appoint Mr Da Costa, the claimant’s line manager and Content Operations Director, to lead the restructure, and it did not accept that this aspect of the process fell outside the band of reasonable responses.

The tribunal also rejected the claimant’s argument that his digital publishing work amounted to 70% or 90% of his role and should have taken him outside the redundancy selection criterion. It accepted the respondent’s business judgment that digital publishing would comprise only 30-35% of a manager’s time after the restructure, and held that the resulting change to the claimant’s role was more than 50%, so it was open to the respondent to place him at risk of redundancy.

Finally, the tribunal rejected the complaint that he should have been interviewed for the newly merged QC and Translation Technology Manager role. It found that role was not at risk of redundancy and was already filled by Soneya Patel. Applying section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, including section 98(2)(c) and section 98(4), the tribunal held the dismissal fair and dismissed the claim.