Charles Pigott reports on why the Woodcock appeal failed to fly
An The origins of the dispute in Woodcock v Cumbria Primary Care Trust UKEAT/0489/09 go back to the merger of a number of primary care trusts (PCTs) in 2006, resulting in a reduction in the number of chief executive posts. Mr Woodcock, who had held such a position under the old structure, was in the process of applying for one of the new posts when he was seconded to the newly created strategic health authority (SHA) for whole of the North West.
In July 2006 he was told that his application for a chief executive’s post in the new structure had been unsuccessful. He remained on secondment doing a number of projects for the SHA, although his salary continued to be paid by the new Cumbria PCT, to which his employment had been transferred as part of the reorganisation. By early 2007 at the latest, given that he had still not found alternative employment, it would have been appropriate for the procedures to dismiss him on grounds of redundancy to begin.
However,
