November 8, 2014

Polkey deduction – decided by EAT

Two employees had been made redundant through a procedure which was neither effective nor fair, and consequently were found to have been unfairly dismissed. The Tribunal had initially found that there was no deduction justified under Polkey but provided no reasons for this.

The employer appealed to the EAT, following which, on remission to the Tribunal, a 20% deduction was made to each employee’s award. However the employer had another go and on a second appeal the EAT found that again the Tribunal had failed to provide reasons for the 20% reduction and had effectively plucked a figure out of the air. Sensibly, the EAT, decided not to remit the matter a second time and instead determined their own reduction under Polkey to each employee’s compensatory award of 33%, taking into account the chance that they would have been fairly dismissed at some point.

This legal update is provided for general information purposes only and should not be applied to specific circumstances without prior consultation with us.

For further details on any of the issues covered in this update please contact Gemma Ospedale, Partner in Employment on 020 7583 2222.

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