Tribunal Member Ijaz Ashraf Tribunal Member Martha McAllister Miss M Johnston v Energy Agency — 2021

The tribunal dismissed Miss Johnston's claims of direct age discrimination, direct sex discrimination and unfair dismissal. She had worked in the respondent's ABS department as a Project Officer. In early 2020 the ABS structure was reorganised: the Project Officer posts were deleted, a Project Manager role was created, and the remaining work was redistributed into Project Assistant and Quality Inspection Assistant roles. The claimant and Mr McCann were the two displaced Project Officers competing for the Project Assistant post; Mr Turnbull was successful for Project Coordinator and the claimant was not appointed to either later-stage role. The tribunal also considered the respondent's search for alternative employment, including the Home Renewables Advisor vacancy, and the appeal to Councillor Cochrane.

On discrimination, the tribunal found no facts from which it could infer that the claimant was treated less favourably because of age or sex. It accepted that the claimant was female and over 60, but found that the relevant decisions were made through competitive interviews and scoring, with a mixed interview panel, and that Mr McCann scored higher for the Project Assistant role. It did not accept that the comment that the Project Assistant role was 'busier' showed age discrimination, and it found that the claimant's complaints about colleagues' behaviour did not explain the restructuring or the selection decisions.

On unfair dismissal, the tribunal held that there was a genuine redundancy situation within section 139(1)(b)(i) of the ERA 1996 because the respondent's requirement for Project Officers had diminished. It accepted that the respondent's chosen process departed from parts of the South Ayrshire Council Framework, but concluded that consultation, the matching and interview process, the consideration of alternative employment, and the appeal were nevertheless within the range of reasonable responses under section 98(4) ERA 1996. No award was made because all claims were dismissed.