BackgroundThe school employer in this case took a decision in February to close the school unless pupil numbers picked up that spring, in time for the following autumn term opening. They received new figures in April showing numbers had not picked up and issued Redundancy and Reorganisation notices to staff, largely to avoid an extra term's salary, should notices expire in the new term. There were more than 20 employees affected by the closure and the employees took and won a failure to consult claim. The employees were awarded the maximum award of 90 days' protective award. The EAT found no fault with the tribunal's argument: "...the duty to consult under section 188 of the Act arose on 27 February 2013 as the Tribunal was entitled to conclude, on the evidence before it, that it was on that date that the Appellant decided to close the School, subject to the possibility of the numbers of pupils increasing. The Tribunal was entitled to conclude that there were no special circumstances rendering it impracticable to consult."http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2015/0023_15_1906.html
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DisclaimerThe information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article.This article is correct at 17/07/2015
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