Mr A Hamill v Crummock (Scotland) Limited — 2019

The claimant was dismissed on 1 June 2018 when Crummock (Scotland) Ltd went into receivership, along with 286 other employees. The tribunal found that the respondent was in clear breach of section 188 of TULRCA 1992 because no consultation was undertaken and no employee representatives were appointed. It made a protective award under section 189 and, on a just and equitable basis, fixed the protected period at 90 days, producing an award of £18,233.10 for the claimant.

The claimant also succeeded on unpaid holiday pay. The tribunal calculated a daily net pay of £202.59, found 4.6 days of accrued but unpaid holiday, and awarded £514.57 after taking account of £295.79 already received from the National Insurance Fund. A separate claim for unpaid pension contribution of £1,210 did not result in an award because the tribunal accepted that this would be made in due course by the National Insurance Fund.

On unfair dismissal, the claimant accepted that there was a genuine redundancy situation but said the dismissal was unfair because there had been no appropriate procedure. The tribunal held that the lack of procedure was contrary to ACAS guidance, good industrial practice and statute, and found the dismissal unfair under section 98(4) ERA 1996. It also found that, even if consultation had occurred, dismissal would probably still have followed one to two weeks later. The tribunal therefore awarded a basic award of £9,906, a compensatory award of £2,025.94, and a statutory award of £350, but the compensatory award was set off against £6,096 already received for notice from the National Insurance Fund and reduced to nil. The total sum ordered was £29,003.67.