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Semple Fraser LLP v Daly - Selection for redundancy and unfair dismissal [2010] EAT

In redundancy unfair dismissal cases it is generally not appropriate for an Employment Tribunal to recalculate the redundancy scores of individuals as this would normally lead to a substitution of the Tribunal's view for that of the employer as to what was within the 'band of reasonable responses' open to a reasonable employer.

Miss Daly trained as a solicitor at Semple Fraser LLP and qualified into their corporate department in September 2008. The department consisted of a partner (Mr Russell), another solicitor (Mr O'Gorman - who had joined the firm in April 2008) and Miss Daly. In the summer of 2008, as a result of the recession, SF LLP began to consider making redundancies. By September 2008 they had determined that the redundancy procedure would go ahead and that the corporate department only needed one assistant solicitor - accordingly either Miss Daly or Mr O'Gorman would be made redundant. The firm's HR department devised a scoring system and Mr Russell provisionally applied this to his two corporate solicitors, both of whom had been warned that they were at risk of redundancy. The individual scores were then moderated by a panel. Mr O'Gorman had scored 42 and Miss Daly 38. Miss Daly was then dismissed and a subsequent internal appeal did not overturn the decision.

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