Ms Marion Sergeant v - Solicitor The Greenhouse Community CIC — 2020

This was an open preliminary hearing to decide whether there had been a transfer of undertaking from the first respondent, Madisons (Central) Limited, to the second respondent, The Greenhouse Community CIC. The tribunal identified the sole issue as whether the business transfer engaged the TUPE 2006 regulations and whether the claimant's employment transferred with it.

The tribunal accepted the evidence of Mr Winter and the claimant as honest, and relied on the missives of sale dated 7 June 2019, the assignation of the lease, and the continuation of the same sandwich bar and takeaway business from the same premises. It found that the business was an economic entity which had been transferred and had retained its identity after the sale. The tribunal said that the "Cheeseman" factors all or virtually all indicated a transfer.

The tribunal also accepted that all eight employees who had been employed immediately before the sale transferred to the second respondent, and that Mr Jacobs told the claimant on 3 June 2019 that her employment would continue on the same terms and conditions with no change. It therefore held that the claimant's employment transferred to The Greenhouse Community CIC on or about 3 June 2019.

No monetary remedy was awarded on this judgment. The reasons record that this hearing was directed to the transfer issue only; the wider claims referred to in the ET1 were not decided in this judgment.