Case study: Redmans win over £20,000 for client in unfair dismissal case

Summary

How Chris Hadrill successfully represented an employee on a no win no fee basis in an Employment Tribunal unfair claim and won over £20,000 for his client.

Employees can bring a claim for unfair dismissal in the Employment Tribunal under s.94 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 if they think that their employer has not acted reasonably in dismissing them.

Situation

Peter (not his real name) was employed by a large UK mining company in West Africa under a UK contract of employment. Peter would work “5 on 5 off” (5 weeks on site and then 5 weeks back at his home in the UK) for the company and, in July 2013, flew home for his rest period from work. However, upon arriving back at his home he received a phone call from one of his managers telling him that he was being made redundant and that he shouldn’t bother coming back to work. Peter was extremely upset by this as he had received no warning of the redundancy, there had been no process or procedure followed in dismissing him, and he had not been offered any potentially suitable alternative vacancies by the company. He appealed against his dismissal but the appeal was rejected by the company.

What we did

Redmans represented Peter on a no win no fee basis in his unfair dismissal claim (under a “Damage-Based Agreement”), with Chris Hadrill acting as the lead solicitor in the claim. Chris advised Peter on all aspects of his claim and represented him at the Employment Tribunal in a 1-day hearing. The Employment Judge almost immediately threw out the company’s defence, holding that there had not been a genuine redundancy situation as the company had simply wanted to bring in Chinese workers who were cheaper than UK employees to undertake the work; the Employment Judge found that this did not sit within the definition of “redundancy” as contained in the Employment Rights Act 1996.

The result

Chris secured compensation of over £20,000 for Peter in his unfair dismissal Employment Tribunal claim on a ‘no win no fee’ agreement, which meant that if Peter had not won his claim then Redmans would have been paid nothing by him.

Call 020 3397 3603 or contact us if you want to talk to Redmans about an Employment Tribunal claim