Procedural error

Gover and others v Propertycare Ltd [2005] WL 3464363; EAT LTL 10 January

Where an employment tribunal held that employees had been unfairly dismissed but that there would have been a justifiable dismissal for the purposes of reorganisation if the correct procedures had been followed, it was entitled to apply Polkey principles and to make a reduction in compensation for forward losses of the employees. There had been no error of law in the approach of the tribunal and it was entitled to make Polkey reductions to the compensation as there was sufficient material to make a finding about what would have occurred if the employer had acted differently and fairly. All that was necessary was for the tribunal to be able to sensibly reconstruct what would have happened had the correct procedures been followed, King v Eaton Ltd (1998) IRLR 686 considered.