An employment tribunal has ruled that Tayside Aviation failed to follow correct redundancy procedures as it entered administration last year.
The Dundee flight school gathered a group of 22 employees who were on the premises in a conference room for a meeting on 20 April last year. Tayside Aviation’s previous finance director, accompanied by two administrators, then revealed that it had gone into administration and would be closing, with the workers’ employments terminated as a result.
One more employee was dismissed on 28 April and the two remaining ones were dismissed on 13 June. Following this, 17 of the workers brought a tribunal case against the employer, as they stated that it had failed to comply with its obligations to consult with them prior to dismissal, and it failed to make arrangements for appropriate employee representatives to be elected as part of the process.
The workers believed there had been an ongoing consultation regarding the redundancy of the other three employees but not them, but that was not the case.
The staff are due wages under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 and were awarded 90 days of pay, the maximum amount possible. They will get 56 days of pay in full from the government and a proportion of the remaining 34 days of the tribunal award as an unsecured creditor.
Employment judge Ian McFatridge said: “None of the claimants had received any prior notice that redundancies were in contemplation. No attempt was made to elect employee representatives in any way or to choose appropriate representatives. The claimants left the premises on 20 April and did not return. The administrators submitted a response in which they accepted that they had been appointed administrators on 20 April and had immediately dismissed 22 employees on that date. They stated there had been no consultation.”
The administrators declined to comment when approached.
