By Kuldeep S. Clair, Senior Solicitor | 25+ Years’ Experience
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Meta Title: Employment Tribunal Settlement After Employer Insolvency | Kuldeep S. Clair. Meta Description: How forensic analysis of TUPE and insolvency evidence secured a £20,000 settlement despite employer liquidation.
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FINAL APPROVED ARTICLE
One of the most daunting questions an employee can face is what happens to their unfair dismissal or whistleblowing claim if their employer goes into liquidation. For many, a company insolvency feels like an immediate dead end. Unscrupulous employers know this, and it is not uncommon for corporate restructuring and insolvency to be deployed as tactical weapons against employees pursuing legitimate claims. However, as this case demonstrates, a strategic liquidation is not always the impenetrable shield that employers believe it to be.
When my client first instructed me at KSC Legal Limited in early 2025, she was dealing with the severe health impacts of having been unfairly dismissed after making protected whistleblowing disclosures. We commenced Employment Tribunal proceedings in the spring of 2025, but it quickly became apparent that this would not be a swift resolution.
The employer embarked upon what could only be described as a war of attrition. Over the following eighteen months, they repeatedly ignored Tribunal directions, failed to provide disclosure properly, and neglected to prepare the required trial bundle. Their strategy was obvious: delay the process, increase the pressure and hope that a vulnerable claimant would eventually lose the energy, confidence or resources to continue.
By late 2026, with a gruelling four-day final hearing looming just three months away, the respondent played what it clearly regarded as its trump card. The original employing company was placed into Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation, having quietly transferred the underlying business operations into a newly incorporated and solvent company. Relying upon the perceived complexity of the insolvency position, the directors then made a cynical £5,000 settlement offer on a take it or leave it basis, evidently confident that the liquidation would deter any further pursuit of the claim.
They severely underestimated the value of forensic legal analysis.
When a business transfers from one entity to another, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations, commonly known as TUPE, can transfer employment liabilities to the new business. Employers will sometimes seek to rely upon insolvency-related exceptions, believing that those liabilities have been left behind with the insolvent company.
Rather than accepting the employer’s narrative, I undertook a detailed forensic reconstruction of the chronology.
By carefully cross-referencing official Gazette insolvency notices, company records, internal staff communications and my client’s own employment documentation, a very different picture emerged. What initially appeared to be a straightforward insolvency defence quickly became a detailed exercise in establishing exactly when the business transfer had actually taken place.
The documentary evidence demonstrated that the transfer of the business had occurred more than four months before the commencement of the liquidation process. Far from escaping liability, the evidence pointed strongly towards the conclusion that responsibility for my client’s employment claims had transferred to the new, solvent trading company.
Once confronted with that analysis, the entire dynamic of the case changed.
The confidence which had underpinned the respondent’s £5,000 offer evaporated almost immediately. Meaningful negotiations became possible for the first time.
Drawing upon more than twenty-five years of litigation and dispute resolution experience, I firmly rejected those tactics and negotiated a binding ACAS COT3 agreement on terms that properly protected my client’s interests.
Almost two years after she first instructed me, and only weeks before a lengthy and highly stressful final hearing, my client secured a settlement of £20,000.
This case demonstrates that success is rarely just about knowing the legislation. It often depends upon identifying weaknesses in an opponent’s strategy, reconstructing complex factual timelines, preserving leverage at critical moments and maintaining the determination to see a difficult case through to the end.
If you are facing an Employment Tribunal claim involving unfair dismissal, whistleblowing, TUPE, insolvency issues or an employer using delaying tactics, obtaining experienced strategic advice at an early stage can make a significant difference to the outcome.
