On the 2nd October 2012 the Employment Appeal Tribunal, in the case of Miles v Insitu Cleaning Company Ltd, in which we were involved, found in favour of the employee, for whom we acted, after it was contended that the Employment Tribunal had failed to adequately consider factual details necessary in order to fully establish whether or not a significant change had taken place in the employee’s duties following a transfer of her employment and was sufficient enough to amount to an Economic, Technological or Organisation (ETO) reason, under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employees) Act 2006. In this case the work of the Claimant was outsourced to an alternative contractor, and it was contended that the dismissal was for a reason connected with a transfer of a business and thus automatically unfair unless the employer can demonstrate that the dismissal took place for an ETO reason, entailing changes in the workforce. The case will subsequently be remitted to the same tribunal in order for them to fully consider a number of facts which were not given adequate consideration at the time of the initial hearing.
His Honour Jeffrey Burk QC also re-affirmed that it was essential to consider the effect of the changes upon the Claimant and not the general implications of the changes upon the transferring employees as a whole.