Mr N Hargreaves v Thomas Cook Group UK Travel Ltd (in compulsory liquidation) and 1 other — 2022

The tribunal gave judgment under rule 21 because the first respondent did not present a response, and the Official Receiver confirmed that the protective award claims would not be contested. The first respondent was in compulsory liquidation, and the High Court had granted permission on 4 February 2021 for the claim to proceed.

On the information before it, the tribunal found that the first respondent employed over 20 employees at Peterborough Westpoint, that the claimant was not a member of a recognised trade union and was not part of the bargaining unit there, and that the company went into compulsory liquidation on 23 September 2019. The claimant’s employment was terminated with immediate effect on that date after the Official Receiver was appointed at 1:47am.

The tribunal found there had been no proper warning or notice to, or consultation with, the recognised trade unions or the claimant, and no consultation with the claimant at all. It also found that no employee representatives had been elected or appointed for consultation within section 188A of the 1992 Act. On that basis, the tribunal held that the first respondent was in breach of section 188 of the 1992 Act and that the claimant’s section 189 complaint was well founded.

As a remedy, the tribunal made a protective award requiring the first respondent to pay the claimant remuneration for the maximum protected period of 90 days beginning on 23 September 2019. The judgment also recorded that the Employment Protection (Recoupment of Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support) Regulations 1996 applied to the award, but it did not state a monetary total.