Mr P McKinnon v Telecom Service Centres Ltd t/a Webhelp UK — 2020

The claimant complained of unfair dismissal after his employment was terminated by reason of redundancy following the collapse of Thomas Cook, whose campaign he had worked on. He accepted that there was a genuine redundancy situation, that he was appropriately selected as being at risk, and that appropriate consultation took place. The remaining issue was whether the respondent took reasonable steps to avoid or minimise redundancy by redeployment.

The Tribunal found that the Sky Team Leader role was different from the claimant's Thomas Cook role and that, following collective consultation, at-risk employees were invited to apply and undertake a competency-based assessment rather than being matched into those roles. The respondent's contract with Sky required employees working on the Sky campaign to pass the assessment to Sky's satisfaction. The claimant applied for the Team Leader role, scored 24 out of 50, and was in the red category, below the pass mark of 42.

The Tribunal found that the respondent acted reasonably in not offering the claimant the Team Leader role, in not giving him further training or reassessment given his score, and in not considering him for the more senior Sales Through Service Performance Manager role after he had not passed the assessment for the more junior role. It concluded that there were no other redeployment opportunities and that the respondent acted reasonably in treating redundancy as a sufficient reason for dismissal. The unfair dismissal claim was dismissed.