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The £118k Redundancy That Was Called a Sham

Date

Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Time

10:00 AM Europe/London

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Agenda

What happens when an employer decides the outcome before starting the process?  

An employee has a row with the owner over his bonus.  

The owner then searches online for “legitimate reasons for director redundancy.”  

An HR manager drafts the talking points and dismissal letter.  

And just hours later, the employee is dismissed in a meeting lasting around five minutes.  

A tribunal found the redundancy was a sham and awarded the claimant £118,223, including the maximum 25% uplift for the employer's failure to follow the ACAS Code.  

In this session of our What Can We Learn From Tribunal Masterclass Series, Elissa Thursfield will take Blyth v Clockwork Group Holdings Ltd apart and look at what the employer did, where the process went wrong, and the warning signs that should have been obvious.  

We'll explore:  

  • What happened before the redundancy process even began  
  • Why the tribunal found the redundancy was not genuine  
  • The problems with the employer's decision-making and process  
  • The role of the HR manager  
  • Why a five-minute dismissal meeting created significant risk  
  • The impact of failing to follow a fair and proper procedure  
  • The tribunal's findings around the employer's conduct and bad faith  
  • What employers should have done differently  


Because a redundancy process isn't something you can work backwards from. You can't decide the outcome first and build the justification afterwards.  

Join Elissa for a detailed look at the judgement and leave with practical learning points you can apply to your own redundancy processes.  

And what happens when you need help before a situation reaches tribunal?  

That's where HRoes comes in. Our Unified Offering brings HR software, legal advice, CPD-accredited training and up to £250,000 of insurance-backed tribunal protection together in one complete employment solution.  

So when an employment issue arises, you don't have to work out which HR provider, lawyer, software or insurer to call. It's all there in one place. Book an intro call!

Elissa Thursfield

Industry-recognised employment lawyer, solicitor, advisor, trainer, and BBC Radio employment law expert contributor with over 15 years of first-hand experience.

Co-founder of HRoes - a software, e-learning, and employment law consultancy - helping businesses reduce tribunal risk, lower legal costs, and eliminate HR headaches.