In a number of recent cases, the EAT has considered the approach industrial tribunals should take when considering reducing unfair dismissal compensation on the grounds that the unfairness was due only to "procedural" failures.
In Polkey v AE Dayton Services Ltd, the House of Lords ruled that a redundancy dismissal will usually be unfair if the employee was not warned or consulted prior to dismissal. But the Lords said there may be exceptions to this rule where the employer, at the time of dismissal, could reasonably take the view that consultation or warnings would be useless.