Claimant v British Gas Services Limited — 2018

The claimant was employed as a customer service adviser at Uddingston. In 2016 the respondent reorganised work across centres, with Uddingston becoming a centre for customer relations. The Tribunal found that the claimant's terms and conditions remained unchanged, the requirement for level 8 customer service advisers at Uddingston remained the same, and the claimant was not placed at risk of redundancy.

The claimant was absent from work from July 2016. The respondent obtained occupational health reports, held health review and attendance meetings, and considered grievances about the role alignment. By August 2017, the medical advice and the claimant's own position were that she was not fit to return to work in the foreseeable future. The Tribunal found that the dismissing manager reasonably believed the claimant was unable to work due to ill health, had taken reasonable steps to ascertain the medical position, and had explored medical redeployment and ill health retirement, which the claimant did not wish to pursue.

The Tribunal concluded that dismissal for capability was within the range of reasonable responses and that the procedure was not fundamentally flawed. It also found that the dismissal was not by reason of redundancy, so the claimant was not entitled to either a contractual redundancy payment or a statutory redundancy payment. The applications were dismissed.