Employment Law Specialists
Successful defence of unfair dismissal claim regarding redundancy pool
Jon Cook v Q Underwriting Services Ltd (formerly PIB Ltd) and PIB (Group Services) Ltd – ET
Mr Cook was initially employed by our client, Q Underwriting Services Ltd and later employed by PIB (Group Services) Ltd. At the time of his dismissal for redundancy, he was employed as UK Head of Professions. Mr Cook brought a claim for unfair dismissal.
Mr Cook claimed that his role was not genuinely redundant and the redundancy process was a sham designed to remove him from the business. The Tribunal rejected Mr Cook’s claim. It found that Mr Cook’s role was redundant due to a restructure of the business whereby it would no longer be organised by specialism but by geographical region. It agreed with our client that Mr Cook’s role would not exist in the new structure.
The Tribunal found that, in these circumstances, because Mr Cook’s role was unique, it was appropriate to place him in a pool of one. It also found that the decision to reject Mr Cook’s application for an alternative role and the consultation process itself was fair. The Tribunal agreed that the reason for dismissal was redundancy, rejecting Mr Cook’s claim that it formed part of a conspiracy.
The team at BDBF acting in this matter was Nick Wilcox, Tom McLaughlin and Melvyna Mumunie.
