The President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal has handed down judgment in the case of Gwynedd Council v Shelley Barratt & Ioan Hughes UKEAT/0206/18/VP. The appeal concerned the reorganisation of primary and secondary education provision within the Gwynedd area in 2017, which resulted in the dismissal of a number of teachers including the two Respondents to the appeal. The Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed the appeal by Gwynedd Council. It held that the Employment Tribunal had been entitled to find that the use of a competitive interview process to determine which of the teachers should be given jobs at the newly created schools, and the absence of any consultation with the teachers, rendered their dismissals unfair. These were fundamental and profound failures by an employer, and the Employment Tribunal did not act err in determining that it would not be appropriate to make any Polkey deduction in the circumstances.
Claire represented the Respondents to the appeal, instructed by NASUWT.
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