Mr R Smith v NV Integration INTERIM RELIEF HEARING — 2021

Employment Judge Truscott QC heard Mr R Smith's application for interim relief on 24 February 2021 by CVP. The respondent did not appear or make representations. The claimant's initial ET1 contained almost no detail, but at the hearing he produced a fuller version alleging that he had been unfairly dismissed after raising health and safety and Covid social distancing concerns. The material before the tribunal included an email sent by the claimant on 6 January 2021 complaining about lack of sanitiser, masks, distancing and unsafe working conditions on sites, and his account that he was later told in a short Zoom call that his short service and work performance were the reasons for termination.

Applying sections 128 and 129 ERA 1996 and the whistleblowing provisions in sections 43A to 43C and 103A ERA 1996, together with the 'pretty good chance' test discussed in Taplin, Dandpat and Sarfraz, the tribunal said that the timing of the dismissal raised suspicion that the complaint may have been the reason, but that the email communications were being considered in isolation and the wider context might be different. On the material available, it was not satisfied that the claimant had shown a pretty good chance of establishing at final hearing that a protected disclosure was the principal reason for dismissal, so the application for interim relief was refused.