City of York Council are appealing the findings of an employment tribunal, after being order to pay its former Corporate Director for Place £10,500 in redundancy. Significantly, the ruling unlocked a gateway to further payments, estimated by the council to be around £350,000.
The tribunal ruled that the Council unfairly denied a statutory redundancy payment to the former Director, finding that the ‘demotion’ it offered him instead was not a suitable alternative job.
The claimant, Mr Ferris, was dismissed by reason of redundancy in August 2024. The council argued he was not entitled to his statutory redundancy payment because he had unreasonably refused an offer of suitable alternative employment: the role of Director of City Development.
Employment Judge Miller rejected that argument. In a reserved judgment handed down on 17 December 2025, the tribunal concluded the DCD role was manifestly not suitable.
As Corporate Director for Place, Mr Ferris oversaw 775 staff, a £70m revenue budget, and a £400m capital programme. The DCD role had responsibility for around 40 staff, a £946,000 revenue budget, and carried a 10% pay cut – from £119,000 to £106,000.
While pay protection was offered, the tribunal found this only froze his salary for two years. More significantly, the role represented a clear demotion.
‘The DCD job had been evaluated by the respondent under its own job evaluation scheme as of a lower grade,’ the judgment stated. ‘This in our view represented a clear reduction in status, and in fact amounted to a demotion in any sense of the word.’
The £10,500 award represents the tip of the iceberg in terms of costs to the council. The judgment itself states: ‘The reason for this [protracted litigation] is that the statutory redundancy payment is, in effect, a trigger or gateway to other entitlements including a defined benefit pension scheme. The cost and benefit of this is, we understand, substantial to the respondent and the claimant respectively.’
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