Thanks to Ed McFarlane of Deminos HR for preparing this case summary
Is a 'perfunctory and insensitive' redundancy consultation likely to make a redundancy dismissal unfair?
Yes, held the EAT in Thomas v BNP Paribas Real Estate, upholding an appeal against the finding of a fair dismissal.
The Claimant had over 40 years' service, ending up as a Director of the Respondent's property management division. After a strategic review, the Claimant was put at risk of redundancy and immediately put on 'garden leave' and told not to contact clients or colleagues. The Respondent then made a number of procedural errors, including getting the Claimant's first name wrong in a letter. However, the employment tribunal found that the dismissal was fair.
The EAT quashed the decision, remitting the claim to a different employment tribunal. The EAT criticised the decision to put the Claimant on garden leave and to prohibit contact with colleagues during the consultation period. The EAT found it 'particularly troubling' that the employment tribunal had found the manner of consultation perfunctory and insensitive, yet considered that it was reasonable, without saying why. Such a process would not necessarily be unreasonable, and hence unfair, but one would expect to find some form of reasoning from the employment tribunal to explain why matters that gave rise to criticism of the process did not render the consultation unreasonable.
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