Mr L Kabzinski v Vistajet International Ltd OPEN PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2021

The claimant presented claims of automatic unfair dismissal and race-related harassment/direct discrimination. At the open preliminary hearing, Employment Judge Brown struck out the automatic unfair dismissal claim under Rule 37(1)(a) because it had no reasonable prospects of success. The judge recorded that the claimant had less than two years' service, so any dismissal claim depended on showing that he had made protected disclosures under s103A ERA 1996.

The tribunal found that the claimant relied on a 70-page document compiled from social media and chat material from friends, colleagues and former colleagues, which he said showed criminal offences including illegal pornography, misprision of felony, and an alleged drugging and filming incident. Applying the authorities on qualifying disclosures, the judge held that there was no reasonable prospect of finding that the claimant had a reasonable belief that the document tended to show a criminal offence, and no reasonable prospect of finding that the alleged disclosures were the principal reason for dismissal. The automatic unfair dismissal claim was therefore struck out.

On the race claims, the tribunal held that it was reasonably arguable that the 11 alleged incidents formed a continuing act or ongoing state of affairs for the purposes of s123 Equality Act 2010, so the time-limit question would be decided at the final hearing. The allegations were not struck out and no deposit order was made. The judge considered it reasonably arguable that the claimant had been offended by the comments and that his failure to complain during employment did not necessarily mean the claims had little reasonable prospect of success.