Sahara Ltd wins appeal against unfair dismissal decision

Wednesday 31 March 2021

An ex-employee of Sahara City has had his unfair dismissal claim overturned, after a second successful appeal of the decision by the restaurant.

Mark Chiverton worked for La Trelade Hotel Limited for several years before ownership of the hotel was transferred to Sahara City Co Ltd and Mr Chiverton was re-employed under a new contract.

Mr Chiverton was employed by Sahara City Ltd independently from La Trelade Hotel Limited when he was dismissed in 2018. He claimed unfair dismissal and following a tribunal in 2019 he won and was awarded £10,273.

Sahara City Ltd has appealed the decision twice. The first attempt failed, but the second attempt on 17 January was successful.

Pictured: La Trelade Hotel Ltd stopped running the hotel and Sahara City Ltd took over in 2018.

On this occasion, Director of Sahara City, Daniel Elsadany, argued that because Mr Chiverton was employed by Sahara City and not La Trelade, and that he had only worked for Sahara City Ltd from 1 April to 10 December 2018, he hadn’t worked the 12 months required for an unfair dismissal claim to be legitimate.

In his concluding statements, the Bailiff Richard McMahon said the appeal should be allowed for these reasons as a matter of law. 

“Having considered the licence agreement, which does not purport to transfer any employee, in the light of the additional evidence that fell to be considered by the Tribunal, I am satisfied that the only conclusion, however much sympathy one might have for the respondent’s position, is that his complaint should have been ruled as inadmissible because he did not prove that he had the one-year period of continuous employment required.”

Mr Chiverton was required to pay back costs to Mr Elsadany, but these were confined to the undisclosed court fees accrued by Sahara City in bringing the appeal to the Royal Court.

If Sahara City was inclined to enforce further costs, they would need to undertake further legal proceedings. Mr McMahon suggested “exercising a little compassion” following a drawn-out judgment.