Mrs E Richardson v Student Loans Company Ltd — 2024

Mrs E Richardson worked for the respondent first as a self-employed consultant from March 2019, then as a fixed-term employee from 17 May 2021 in a project manager role. Her contract was extended several times, and a further extension was proposed in July 2023, but management did not support it. When the claimant raised concerns in September 2023 about the process being followed, the respondent eventually told her that the reason for dismissal was some other substantial reason, and then dismissed her by letter dated 28 September 2023 effective from 30 September 2023.

The tribunal rejected the claim under the Fixed-Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002. It held that the claimant had not identified an actual comparator permanent employee, so the less favourable treatment complaint could not succeed. The tribunal also said that it was not confident the respondent would in any event have applied the relevant policies consistently to a permanent employee, but the absence of a comparator was enough to dispose of the claim.

On the reason for dismissal, the tribunal found that the real reason was redundancy, not some other substantial reason. It relied on the repeated extensions of the claimant’s work, the ongoing nature of the project work she had been doing, and the fact that the respondent had not treated the work as a time-limited exercise with a fixed end point. It concluded that the need for employees to carry out work of that kind had diminished, and that the respondent’s later SOSR label was an ex post facto decision.

The tribunal held that the dismissal was unfair under s.98(4) ERA 1996. It found that the respondent did not consult the claimant about dismissal, did not seriously consider alternative employment with her, did not discuss her skills or possible roles, and did not apply its own redeployment or redundancy policies in practice. The claimant did not seek compensation for loss of earnings, so the monetary award comprised a contractual redundancy payment of £8,476 and £500 for loss of statutory rights, with the basic award offset against the redundancy payment. The total award was £8,976.