Ms A Chute (Counsel) v Respondent — 2025

Mr Greenwood, an Emergency Care Assistant who started work on 1 July 2016, made a Datix report on 4 March 2022 about Tony Albert's handling of ambulance handover at Royal Cornwall Hospital. The tribunal held that the Datix was a protected disclosure because it raised health and safety concerns and Mr Greenwood reasonably believed he was acting in the public interest.

After the Datix, the Trust proposed facilitated mediation and then invited Mr Greenwood to use the grievance process. He declined mediation, did not submit a grievance, and instead sent a series of letters and emails threatening CQC and Employment Tribunal action. The tribunal preferred Mr Griffin's account of the August 2022 meeting, found that Mr Greenwood had not laid down the four conditions he later alleged, and held that the respondent's use of grievance, mediation and internal investigation steps was a reasonable response rather than detriment, harassment or victimisation.

The tribunal accepted the respondent's concession that Mr Greenwood was disabled by PTSD, anxiety and depression, but found no unfavourable treatment arising from disability and no need for reasonable adjustments. It held that the requirement to use the grievance process and to attend meetings did not place him at a substantial disadvantage, and it rejected the complaints about witness handling, the work-related absence decision, the plus/minus hours issue, the August 2022 HR call and Tony Albert's presence before the Stage 1 meeting.

The tribunal found that Megan Birnie did not want further involvement, that Nathan Coombe had nothing substantive to add, and that the work-related absence decision was a bona fide application of the policy excluding employment disputes. It also found that the rolling relief hours issue was a computer error that was corrected promptly. All claims were dismissed and no remedy was awarded.