Mr James Iorizzo v Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited — 2021

The preliminary hearing considered whether the claimant should be permitted to amend his July 2021 ET1 by adding claims of protected disclosure detriment and automatically unfair dismissal, and whether the remaining unfair dismissal complaint should be struck out. The tribunal found that the claimant's employment ran from 21 October 2019 to 19 March 2021, so he did not have two years' service at the effective date of termination.

The tribunal found that the July ET1 set out an ordinary unfair dismissal complaint about home working, a performance plan, grievance issues and redundancy, but did not refer to a protected disclosure or assert detriment or dismissal because of such a disclosure. The later September pleading was found to be a new protected disclosure claim rather than a clarification of the original claim, and it was out of time. The tribunal was not satisfied that it had not been reasonably practicable for the claimant to raise that claim within time.

Applying the amendment authorities and balancing prejudice, the tribunal refused leave to amend. With the amendment refused, only the ordinary unfair dismissal claim remained, and that was struck out as having no reasonable prospect of success because the claimant lacked the qualifying service required by section 108 ERA. The claims were dismissed in entirety.