EAT Unfair Dismissal: Reasonableness of Dismissal – Unfair dismissal – Redundancy dismissal – the fairness of the dismissal for that reason – whether the Claimant’s argument that the Respondents had acted in breach of contract was relevant to the question of fairness
Having found the Claimant had been dismissed by reason of redundancy, the ET further found that the dismissal for that reason was fair in all the circumstances of the case. In reaching that conclusion, the ET did not consider the alleged (by the Claimant) breach of contract on the part of the Respondents was relevant but even if there had been such a breach (on which the ET made no finding), the dismissal was still fair.
On appeal, the Claimant argued that the ET had erred in law by failing to make a specific finding as to whether the Respondents had acted in breach of contract. She contended that she had a contractual right to continue to be employed for the term of Lady Sainsbury’s life plus six months and, by dismissing her earlier than this, the Respondents had acted in breach of contract and that was relevant to the fairness of the dismissal.
The general principle was that the statutory right not to be unfairly dismissed was wholly separate from common law entitlement under a contract of employment (Treganowan v Robert Knee and Co Ltd [1975] ICR 405). In some cases, it had been allowed that the contractual position might be relevant to (albeit not determinative of) the question of fairness of a dismissal; see Redbridge LBC v Fishman [1978] ICR 569, Hooper v British Railways Board [1988] IRLR 517, Farrant v the Woodroffe School [1998] ICR 184 and Ford v Libra Fair Trades Ltd UKEAT/0077/08/MAA. Such cases, however, involved alleged breaches of contract which gave rise to issues that had proper coincidence with the determination of the fairness of the dismissal. That was not this case. The Claimant was not saying that the Respondent had contractually committed not to making her redundant, simply that the issue of job security was part of the relevant factual background. Her argument was really that the Respondents had acted in breach of contract in dismissing her before the period in question had expired (the lifetime of Lady Sainsbury plus six months). That was an issue that went to the timing of the dismissal, not the fairness of the dismissal for the reason in question. The ET had correctly characterised this as no different from a case involving an allegation of short notice.
In the alternative, the ET had concluded that the dismissal was fair even if it had been in breach of contract as the Claimant alleged. Having regard to what the ET found that the Respondents had taken into account (and applying a range of reasonable responses test), that was a permissible conclusion and it was not open to the EAT to interfere.
Appeal dismissed.
Eady QC HHJ
[2015] UKEAT 0278 – 14 – 1707
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 04 January 2022; Ref: scu.552424