“She will be overall in charge of all Marketing Communication for Naiade Resorts Ltd. This will include overseeing the Marketing Communication Services department at Head Office, managed by Mrs Valerie Imbert Kerambrun and the Marketing Communication for Europe, headed by Mr Thierry Macquet. [That is the Claimant.] Both Mrs Imbert Kerambrun and Mr Macquet will report to Ms Dalais.”
“Ms Dalais’ and Mr Macquet’s total employment costs are nearly the same. However, for roughly the same amount, Ms Dalais’ job scope will be global and encompass all aspects of communication (including PR and Press Relations in Europe) while Mr Macquet’s is restricted to the latter. Therefore, the value improvement that this reorganisation brings to the Company is substantial.”
“The judgment of the Employment Tribunal is that on the basis that the respondent was facing serious financial pressures there was indeed a genuine redundancy situation.”
“The Tribunal finds that even though the claimant had undertaken strategic duties on occasions, his role in London was not the same as the one to which Ms Dalais was appointed and which she took up on 1 March in Paris. The Tribunal finds that when putting the Claimant at risk of redundancy the respondents were entitled to exclude Ms Dalais from being put into a selection pool with the claimant. Her new role was part of a reorganisation but was not directly connected with the decision to put the claimant at risk of redundancy.”
“[…] having read all the relevant documents, statements and reports and considered equally the grievance investigation and the claimant’s appeal, finds that the respondent did follow a fair procedure, and that the respondent’s consultations with the claimant regarding his subsequent redundancy were adequate.”
“(6) Written reasons for a judgment shall include the following information — (a) the issues which the tribunal or chairman has identified as being relevant to the claim; […] (c) findings of fact relevant to the issues which have been determined; (d) a concise statement of the applicable law; (e) how the relevant findings of fact and applicable law have been applied in order to determine the issues.”
“I do not doubt in future Employment Tribunals would be well advised to recite the terms of rule 30(6) and to indicate serially how their determination fulfils its requirements, if only to avoid unmeritorious appeals. But the rule is surely intended to be a guide and not a straightjacket. Provided it can be reasonably spelt out in the determination of the Employment Tribunal that what rule 30(6) requires has been provided by that Tribunal, then no error of law will have been committed.”
“[…] an elaborate formalistic product of refined legal draftsmanship [but rather the] parties are entitled to be told why they have won or lost. There should be sufficient account of the facts and of the reasoning to enable the EAT or, on further appeal, this court to see whether any question of law arises.”
“Industrial Tribunal’s reasons are not intended to include a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the case either in terms of fact or law. Their purpose remains what it has always been, which is to tell the parties in broad terms why they lose or, as the case may be, win. I think it would be a thousand pities if these reasons began to be subjected to a detailed analysis when appeals were to be brought upon any such analysis. This, to my mind is to misuse the purpose for which reasons are given.”
“The EAT must respect the factual findings of the employment Tribunal and should not strain to identify an error merely because it is unhappy with any factual conclusions; it should not ‘use a fine toothcomb’ to subject the reasons of the Employment Tribunal to unrealistically detailed scrutiny so as to find artificial defects; it is not necessary for the Tribunal to make findings on all matters of dispute before them nor to recount all the evidence, so that it cannot be assumed that the EAT sees all the evidence; and infelicities or even legal inaccuracies in particular sentences in the decision will not render the decision itself defective if the Tribunal has essentially properly directed itself on the relevant law.”
“Redundancy. (1) For the purposes of this Act an employee who is dismissed shall be taken to be dismissed by reason of redundancy if the dismissal is wholly or mainly attributable to— (a) the fact that his employer has ceased or intends to cease— (i) to carry on the business for the purposes of which the employee was employed by him, or (ii) to carry on that business in the place where the employee was so employed, or (b) the fact that the requirements of that business— (i) for employees to carry out work of a particular kind […] have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish.”
“Free of authority, we understand the statutory framework of [what is now s.103 of the Employment Rights Act] to involve the three stage process: (1) was the employee dismissed? If so, (2) had the requirements for the employer’s business for employees to carry out work of a particular kind ceased or diminished, or were they expected to cease or diminish? If so, (3) was the dismissal of the employee (the applicant before the Industrial Tribunal) caused wholly or mainly by the state of affairs identified at stage 2 above?”
“There may be a number of underlying causes for leading to a true redundancy situation; our stage 2. There may be a need for economies; a reorganisation in the interests of efficiency; a reduction in production requirements; unilateral changes in the employees’ terms and conditions of employment. None of these factors are themselves determinative of the stage 2 question. The only question to be asked is; was there a diminution/cessation in the employer’s requirements for employees to carry out work of a particular kind, or an expectation of such cessation/diminution in the future? […] Our approach was consistent with the decision of the Court of Appeal in Murphy v Epsom College[1985] ICR 80 . There, the applicant was one of two plumbers employed by a school. His work consisted mainly of general plumbing work. The employers decided to employ a heating technician to maintain their improved heating system. They then decided to dismiss one of the two plumbers and selected the employee for dismissal. The Court of Appeal upheld the majority view of the Industrial Tribunal that the decision for dismissal was redundancy.”