Failure to consult

Case 5: The facts

Mr Davis had been unwell for some time. He was told that there was a risk of his job being made redundant and was given two options, one of which was to take immediate redundancy with three months' pay in lieu. The other was financially less favourable. Davis agreed to the redundancy. His employers admitted that although the redundancy was genuine, procedural flaws in the consultation made it unfair. A tribunal held that even if the procedure had been fair he would still have been made redundant.

The ruling

The EAT held that it was impossible for a tribunal following the law correctly to have come to this conclusion. The EAT argued that it was difficult to conceive that consultation might not have affected the dismissal especially in this case where the employer had a policy to take steps towards finding alternative employment and had ignored the policy and that the dismissal was unfair.

* Davis v ITNET EAT/051/02