The claimants were among nine employees dismissed by Alliance Transport Technologies Limited when it entered administration in May 2023. The company had filed notices of intention to appoint administrators in April 2023, they were appointed on 2 May 2023 and the three claimants were dismissed that day. Six other employees were dismissed on 5 May 2023 when the final prospective purchaser withdrew. The Employment Tribunal awarded protective awards to those dismissed on 5 May but rejected these claims, as no proposal to dismiss 20 or more employees existed on 2 May 2023.

HHJ Tucker allowed the appeals, deciding the claimants deserved a protective award and summarised the decision as follows:

"The question the employment judge should have asked was not whether there was a proposal to dismiss as of 2nd May more than 20 employees; it was whether the employer was proposing to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees within a period of 90 days. The difference between ‘a proposal’ and ‘is proposing’ is not mere semantics. “Proposing to dismiss” involves and includes current and ongoing consideration of future events, albeit events which are not certain. Whilst the duty to consult will not arise where closure of a business is merely mooted as a possibility, the duty to consult was triggered where it is established as a clear, albeit provisional, intention. The Tribunal erred in focusing on the need for ‘a proposal’ and omitted, at key points in its analysis, the possibility that the required proposal may be provisional, and in respect of dismissals which may occur over a 90 day period. An employer must also ‘project forward’ so as to ensure that consultation is begun in good time."