Protective award

Case 4: The facts

A tribunal made a protective award of 80 days' pay to members of the T&G general union after their employer failed to consult over the proposed redundancies of 30-35 workers. The employer argued that the award was too high.

The ruling

The mandatory periods of consultation are 30 days if 20-99 redundancies are planned and 90 days if the figure is 100 or more. However, the limitation of the protective award to 30 days' pay for fewer than 100 redundancies was removed in 1999.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a protective award of up to 90 days' pay can be awarded when fewer than 100 employees are to be made redundant. As the award is punitive and not compensatory, it relates to the seriousness of the employer's breach of its consultation duty and not the losses incurred by the workers.

Newage Transmission v TGWU UKEAT/0131/05