Mrs Alexandra Fraser v Ministry of Defence Heard: by CVP in Birmingham — 2022

Mrs Alexandra Fraser brought a whistleblowing detriment claim under s47B of the Employment Rights Act 1996 arising from her work as a nurse at Dhekelia Group Practice in the Sovereign Base Area in Cyprus. The hearing was on the respondent's strike-out application, which argued that the claim fell outside the tribunal's jurisdiction because the employment was governed by SBA law and the base had its own legislative and industrial tribunal system.

The tribunal accepted the general Lawson v Serco and British Council v Jeffery approach that expatriate workers are normally governed by the law of the place of work unless there is a sufficiently strong UK connection. It rejected the argument that the SBA was merely a UK enclave, relying on Holloway v Ministry of Defence to hold that the SBA is a sovereign overseas territory with its own distinct legislature, and it held that the ECHR/HRA argument did not provide an alternative route to jurisdiction in this tribunal.

On the facts, the tribunal found that the claimant occupied a hybrid role: she was a locally employed civilian nurse, but also a UK-registered and regulated nurse subject to the JSP 950, line-managed by DMS personnel, excluded from the local SBA terms and conditions for nurses, and covered by complaint provisions that expressly referred to protected disclosures and Employment Tribunal claims under s47B. The tribunal held that, for that whistleblowing detriment claim, the JSP 950 created an implied opt-in to UK Employment Tribunal jurisdiction. The respondent's strike-out application was dismissed, jurisdiction was found under s47B, and the substantive claim was listed for a separate case management hearing.