Reason for dismissal

Case 9: The facts

Mr Bacco was one of two managers selling software to manufacturers. His employer reorganised its structure so that one manager sold to the manufacturers and one to construction firms. The manufacturing role went to Bacco’s colleague, who scored higher on interview, and Bacco was not given the construction role because of his lack of experience in that sector. He was dismissed.

A tribunal upheld Bacco’s unfair dismissal claim, on the grounds that his employer had not shown a potentially fair reason for dismissal; had not complied with the statutory dismissal procedure; and had not followed a fair selection procedure.

The ruling

The tribunal should have decided whether the construction sales manager job was of the same type as that already done by Bacco, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) said. If it was not, there was a redundancy; if it was, there was no redundancy but this was likely to amount to some other substantial reason for dismissal.

The EAT also found that the tribunal had reached its conclusion without properly analysing the employer’s reasons for not offering Bacco the construction job. For these and other reasons, the case was sent to a different tribunal for rehearing.

Sage (UK) Ltd v Bacco UKEAT/0597/06