Criminal prosecutions for administrators are rare, and rarer still are prosecutions under employment legislation. However, a recent decision has confirmed that an administrator can be prosecuted and personally liable for a failure to notify the Secretary of State of proposed collective redundancies under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA).
An insolvency practitioner, Robert Palmer, is being prosecuted in the Magistrates' Court for the criminal offence of a failure to submit the prescribed form notifying the Secretary of State about collective redundancies. This allegedly occurred while he was carrying out his office in respect of a company in administration, USC.
The duty to submit the form (HR1) is triggered where an employer is proposing to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment within a period of 90 days or less. Any failure to do so is a criminal offence (subject to a rarely successful defence of 'special circumstances').
In addition, individuals who are 'a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer' of the company can be personally prosecuted for the criminal offence if the offence by the corporate entity has been committed with their consent, or connivance or attributable to neglect on their part.
Mr Palmer argued that administrators are not covered by the offence under TULRCA. Administrators are neither officers of the company nor 'similar' to the identified officers (director, manager or company...
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