TUPE dismissal

Case 5: The facts

Mr Urmston, Mrs Downes and Mr Warburton were dismissed when the company they worked for, which provided services for a firm carrying out personal injury claims, got into financial difficulty.

Other staff were kept on, and had their employment transferred to the firm that they had previously been supplying – which worked out of the same premises and involved some of the same personnel.

A tribunal found that Urmston, Downes and Warburton had been unfairly dismissed.

The ruling

The Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the tribunal’s finding. The fact that the other firm was working on the same files and had retained the support staff meant that there was a TUPE transfer, and the transfer was the principal reason for dismissal.

There was no indication that the claimants were dismissed to make the business viable, and as there was no economical, technical or organisational (ETO) reason entailing changes in the workforce, the dismissals were automatically unfair.

John Hardman & Co v Urmston, Downes & Warburton UKEAT/0620/05