An executive was dismissed four months before the transfer of undertaking took place.  The male brought a claim for unfair dismissal and race discrimination and the Tribunal held that the dismissal was in anticipation of the transfer!  It held the transferee liable both for automatic unfair dismissal and for the transferor’s pre-transfer discrimination.

The first issue for the EAT was whether the transferor had the right to appeal notwithstanding the Tribunal’s ruling that the transferee was liable.  The EAT ruled on this preliminary point that it did have the right, since if the Tribunal’s decision was overturned liability would revert back to the transferor.  You can read the full decision here.

You may wonder why the transferor would wish to get involved since the transferee was the one against whom the award was made.  Well I suspect it related to indemnities given by the transferor to the transferee relating to such conduct matters pre-transfer.  The case is interesting from the angle of time between dismissal and transfer and a reminder of the importance of effective indemnities.