Mr Michael Curley v SR Technics UK Limited — 2021

The tribunal found that SR Technics UK Limited’s business suffered a severe reduction in work from early 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and that the claimant’s dismissal on 26 October 2020 was by reason of redundancy within s.139 ERA 1996. It accepted that the respondent had to reduce costs and adjust staffing levels as flight activity fell, and that the claimant’s case was therefore one of redundancy rather than any other reason.

The respondent had carried out a collective redundancy exercise with Unite, including consultation meetings in July and August 2020, agreed redundancy pools, agreed selection criteria, and individual consultation. The claimant was placed in the Shift Leader pool, scored 57, and finished fifth of seven Shift Leaders. The tribunal accepted the scoring framework as objective and reasonable, including the use of licence type, approval type, standard of work, additional skills, attendance, disciplinary record and commitment to work.

The tribunal rejected the claimant’s case that his 2019 grievance against a colleague influenced the process. It found no evidence that the grievance affected pooling, scoring, or dismissal, and no credible indication of bias. It also accepted the respondent’s explanation for the score reductions and increases applied to the claimant, and held that the decisions about pooling and post-scoring placement of staff were within the range of reasonable employer responses.

On alternative employment, the tribunal found there were no suitable vacancies to offer the claimant once he was provisionally selected for redundancy. It held that it was reasonable for Mr Fantauzzi to ask other group companies about vacancies and then leave matters when no useful openings were identified. The tribunal also found it was not unreasonable not to re-engage the claimant in late 2020 either to extend furlough or to facilitate a future TUPE transfer to EasyJet. The unfair dismissal claim was therefore refused and no compensation calculation was required.