The claimant was employed by the Ardoyne Association, an unincorporated body which provides advice services in North Belfast, and was dismissed in March 2015. The respondent argued that the claimant was dismissed fairly on the ground of redundancy based on a lack of funding. The claimant argued that she had been both automatically and substantively unfairly dismissed. 

Two other employees were also selected for redundancy, but no objective criteria had been applied in the selection of the pool of candidates and it was described as ‘arbitrary’ by the tribunal. It identified that one of the main issues was the unequal treatment of the claimant in relation to the other candidates since they were offered further opportunities volunteering whereas the