Thread by @JasonBraier

1/ Gwynedd Council v Barratt & Hughes: CA clarifies that the lack of a right to appeal isn't determinative (or determinative save exceptionally) of a redundancy unfair dismissal claim, but merely one issue among many when considering fairness.

bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/…

#ukemplaw

2/ B&H were employed as secondary school PE teachers. Their school closed, as did all primary schools in the area, to be replaced with a super school, providing education all the way through primary & secondary levels. On closure, B&H's contracts terminated.

3/ Staffing at the new school was by application process, with unsuccessful candidates being made redundant. B&H applied for the relevant posts in the new school but were unsuccessful. They weren't given a right to appeal & the school said it'd have been futile.

4/ As with the EAT decision (see thread here:

https://twitter.com/JasonBraier/status/1268229341198065680

), much of the CA judgment concerns Welsh school staffing regulations. Fascinating as they are, I'm going to skip that part of the judgment in this thread.

5/ The point of wider interest concerns appeals against redundancy decisions. The CA noted that there's no general rule that dismissal for redundancy without an appeal 'must' be unfair where no internal appeal mechanism is provided in the contract of employment.

6/ The CA settled on a finding that the correct position was that a redundancy dismissal would not be unfair 'only' because of failure to provide an appeal hearing - it's 1 factor to consider among many in determining fairness.

7/ Approving the EAT, the CA made clear that the absence of an appeal isn't determinative of unfairness, & there's no 'truly exceptional circumstances' test to save from unfairness a redundancy process lacking a right to appeal.