Ms M Ayres and others v Taylor Newspapers Limited (In Liquidation) — 2019

The claimant group brought a complaint under section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 seeking a protective award. The respondent did not defend the claim. The tribunal recorded that Taylor Newspapers Limited was placed into creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 25 June 2018 and that, as at 29 May 2018, it employed 20 employees at 4a Hawkesworth, Southmead, Didcot.

The tribunal found that all employees were dismissed as redundant on 29 May 2018 and that, before those dismissals, there had been no communication that redundancies were proposed. It found that the employees had no appropriate representatives, that no opportunity was given to elect employee representatives, that no employee representatives were elected, and that there was no consultation at all before the redundancies took effect.

On that basis, the tribunal held that the complaint under section 188 was well founded. It noted that consultation in a case of 20 or more proposed redundancies must begin in good time, at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect, and must cover ways of avoiding dismissals, reducing numbers, and mitigating consequences with a view to reaching agreement.

As the failure to consult was complete and no mitigating circumstances were identified or advanced, the tribunal applied the maximum protected period and made a protective award of 90 days under section 189(4). The judgment does not quantify a monetary total in the text provided, but records the 90-day protective period for the affected employees dismissed on 29 May 2018.