Jason Elliott was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2013 and is the Associate Head of School of Law at Ulster University. As a practising barrister, he has developed a largely civil practice representing individuals, companies and public bodies in litigation. This covers a wide range of areas including personal injuries, wills and employment law. In terms of employment law, he has represented both applicants and respondents in the Industrial Tribunal. At Ulster University, Jason lectures extensively on the civil areas of practise such as Equity and Trusts and delivers employment law lectures for both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Tribunal was able to determine who the actual employer was for the purposes of a redundancy payment when a store closed down.
The claimant was employed in 2019 by a company (LB & JK Ltd) as a Senior Interior Designer. The claimant believed that she was employed by Orenda Living and one of eight respondents she had initially named in the claim (Mr Donaghy). Mr Donaghy sent the claimant a letter in May 2025 advising her that a decision had been made to close the store, thanking her for her work and asking her to return all company items. As a result, she was being made redundant without notice.
The issue for the Tribunal was who the correct employer was for the purposes of a redundancy and notice payment. Originally the claimant had named eight respondents but 6 of these were dismissed at a Case Management Preliminary Hearing.
The Tribunal assessed the evidence to determine who the correct employer was. It looked at the payslips received by the claimant. This ranged from Orenda Living (Derry) Ltd in 2021-2023, Orenda Living in 2024 and then more recently PM & KP Ltd in late 2024 and into 2025. Bearing this evidence in mind the Tribunal found that PM & KP Ltd was the most recent employer as it was the most recent one on the payslips. This was also a position agreed with by the Department for the Economy who were a notice party to the proceedings.
As a result, there was a redundancy payment of £2,653.50 ordered as well as notice pay of £1,769.00.
This is a neat case but one in which determining the correct employer was difficult for the claimant to initially discern. This was not surprising considering the changing nature of the companies involved in the operation but it did end with one of those companies being on the payslips for the latter aspect of the claimant’s employment. This provided a fairly easy way for the Tribunal to determine this. If there is a change in terms of the employing company, then it would be best that all those involved are notified of that change rather than those changes all taking place behind closed doors.
NI Tribunal decisions are available on the OITFET website.
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