Mrs Herbert has been working as a senior recruitment consultant for six years, having started as a junior consultant. The company calls her into a meeting which includes her line manager and the HR business partner. She is told she is at risk of redundancy and aspects of her job are going to be distributed to other employees. She leaves the meeting feeling devastated, having worked to build up the business over many years. She is informed of a vacancy and is subsequently given the job description. Upon reading the job description, she realises that this ‘new’ job constitutes 80% of what she already does. She is informed that she can apply for this job. Mrs Herbert applies for the job but someone else gets it. She lodges a claim to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal.
Her case is heard, and she is successful. The tribunal find there was no redundancy situation as it was in her skill set to carry out the job and 80% of this new role was hers in any event. The tribunal award a basic award based on a set formula, loss of statutory rights, and loss of earnings. She has not found a new job by the hearing date and is awarded future losses of six months.
She loses her case. The tribunal find there was a redundancy situation, she was given a fair opportunity to apply for a new position, and her application was considered fairly.