Woman sacked in redundancy sham

A MARKETING assistant has won an unfair dismissal case after bosses ousted her at 60 because of her poor social media skills.

Sylvia Williams was the target of a sham redundancy process engineered by managers to axe her.

Bosses were unhappy Lyons Holiday Parks had fallen behind competitors while long-serving Ms Williams was in charge of social media, a tribunal heard.

Managers wanted more likes and shares online and she was blamed for its inefficiency. Rather than exploiting social media data Ms Williams had been doing marketing tours and attending charity events, the tribunal heard.

She found herself sidelined for new, social media savvy staff in their early 20s, had online duties taken away from her and was not considered for a training course.

TheWelsh company allowed her to apply for a new social media job even though it had decided on ousting her, then put her through a bogus redundancy process designed to get rid of her as she was the only one involved.

MsWilliams tried to sue Lyons Holiday Parks for age discrimination – but a tribunal threw out the claim.

Settlement

However, she was successful in suing for unfair dismissal as the tribunal found bosses had “engineered” her departure.

After working for Lyons for nearly a decade MsWilliams was sacked in March 2020, then at the age of 60. Cardiff Employment Tribunal’s report said: “The directors were uncertain as to what exactly she did to occupy herself all day at work.”

Employment judge Vin Ryan said: “There was nothing she could have done to save her employment. It was a foregone conclusion.”

Lyons Holiday Parks, which has 14 sites in North Wales and Cumbria, has now reached an out-of-court financial settlement with Ms Williams.