Salam Alaswad v Mr I Najjar (the First Respondent / R1) and 1 other — 2024

The claimant was employed by Equiti Capital UK Limited from 4 April 2022 until 1 August 2022 as the prospective UK CEO, subject to FCA approval. The tribunal found that approval was never sought, and that during the onboarding period the claimant raised a series of concerns about the company's accounts, PFOF, reporting lines, systems and controls, and transfer pricing. It held that some of those communications were protected disclosures, including PD3, PD5, PD9, PD10, PD11, PD12 and PD13, but that others were not protected disclosures on the facts, or were more in the nature of proof-reading, managerial queries, or incomplete allegations.

The tribunal found that the respondents' concerns about the claimant developed cumulatively and were not caused by the disclosures. It accepted that there were issues with the claimant's skills-gap analysis, the Effecta assessment, and feedback from R2's External Counsel, and that the UK Head of Compliance had reservations about whether the claimant could demonstrate the necessary FCA-facing competence for the role. The tribunal held that the decision not to proceed with his appointment as CEO was taken at Group ExCo on 22 June 2022 because the respondents no longer considered him the right fit for the role, rather than because he had raised protected disclosures.

On the detriment allegations, the tribunal found that the comment by R2's External Counsel on 22 June 2022 was not a detriment as alleged, and that the later conversations with Mr Najjar, Mr Webb, Mr Myers, Mr Fulton and Ms Ilbak were not on the ground of protected disclosures. It also rejected the contention that the dismissal letter contained misleading reasoning for the dismissal. The automatic unfair dismissal complaint under s.103A ERA 1996 and the whistleblowing detriment complaint under s.47B ERA 1996 were therefore dismissed, and no compensation was awarded.