Procedural unfairness

Case 1: The facts

A tribunal found that Mr Dockerty had been unfairly dismissed, since his employer had failed to follow a fair procedure when selecting him for redundancy. It awarded compensation of nearly £18,000 and said it was impossible to conclude whether he would have been dismissed if a fair procedure had been followed.

The employer argued that the tribunal should have reduced the award since Dockerty would have been dismissed even if a fair procedure had been followed.

The ruling

The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the tribunal had a duty to consider what would have happened if a fair procedure had been followed and to assess the employee's chances of either retaining their own job or being offered alternative work. The tribunal had not done so, so the case was remitted to the same tribunal for a "Polkey deduction" to be considered.

FM Fabrications v Dockerty UKEAT/0167/05