Compensation

Case 5: The facts

Ms Bowyer was dismissed, ostensibly by reason of redundancy. A tribunal found that she had been unfairly dismissed, and that her dismissal had been for some reason (which it was for the employer to determine) other than redundancy.

Bowyer was awarded £53,500, the maximum compensatory award at that time; had there been no upper limit, she would have received more than £200,000 to reflect her lost earnings. But the tribunal ordered that she should not receive the additional basic award for unfair dismissal, as the severance pay she received from her employer included statutory redundancy pay.

The ruling

The Employment Rights Act 1996 states that any payment received by the employee on grounds of his/her redundancy must be offset against the basic award if they have been unfairly dismissed.

But the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that, in accordance with the Court of Appeal's judgment in Boorman v Allmakes [1995] IRLR 553, this does not apply if redundancy is not the real reason for the dismissal. This meant that Bowyer was entitled to retain the payment she had already received and not have it offset against the basic award.

Bowyer v Siemens plc UKEAT/0021/05