Mr E Heggarty v Record U.K. Limited — 2025

Mr Heggarty worked for Record UK Ltd as its only Senior Quantity Surveyor from 5 January 2021 until his dismissal on 20 March 2024. The tribunal accepted that the respondent was carrying out cost-saving measures against a background of falling orders and held that redundancy was the genuine reason for dismissal, not performance or a poor relationship with Mr Greenlees. It accepted that Mr Greenlees had raised informal concerns about dress, timekeeping and a presentation, but found those issues were minor and had been resolved before the redundancy process began.

The dismissal was still unfair because the respondent did not act within the band of reasonable responses when it selected a pool of one. The tribunal found that the company did not genuinely apply its mind to a wider pool, particularly Mr Elrich, even though he and the claimant worked as a two-person team with overlapping duties and covered for each other. It accepted that consultation took place and that three alternative roles were offered, but held that this did not cure the flaw in the pooling exercise. The tribunal also found that the respondent had not acted with malice or ill intent.

On remedy, the claimant had already received a statutory redundancy payment, so no basic award was due. The tribunal found that he had made reasonable efforts to mitigate his loss by looking for quantity surveyor work and then taking on a greater role in the business he had established with Mr Robertson, which was not yet paying him. It awarded six months of loss of earnings, pension loss and loss of statutory rights, reduced by 25% for a Polkey deduction, and recorded no award for financial distress. The separate unlawful deduction of wages claim about two days of holiday pay was dismissed because the contract authorised deduction for holidays taken but not accrued.