In person For the v Ms J Nevins, Solicitor — 2019

Mr Mott worked for Secure Care UK Ltd from 6 July 2018 as Logistics Manager. The respondent was facing staffing shortages and operational problems. The tribunal found that most of the claimant's early communications were not qualifying disclosures, but it accepted that the 21 July 2018 email about shift patterns and rest breaks, the 22 August 2018 email about reduced control room staffing, and the conversation with Mr Sanusi on 26 September 2018 were protected disclosures within section 43B ERA 1996.

Applying Cavendish Munro and Kilraine, the tribunal held that those accepted disclosures contained sufficient factual content to tend to show breaches of the Working Time Regulations, CQC requirements, and health and safety law. It found that the claimant had a reasonable belief that the chronic staffing and operational problems meant the respondent was failing to comply with those obligations, and that the disclosures were made in the public interest because the respondent carried out transport work for highly vulnerable mental health patients and staff safety was also engaged.

On causation, the tribunal accepted that the respondent was in a genuine financial difficulty and that a redundancy situation had arisen by September 2018, but it found that the selection process was marked by subjectivity and that no redundancy pools had been identified. It held that the claimant's repeated complaints and disclosures had a more than trivial and material influence on his provisional selection and dismissal, including the decision to remove his system access after the 26 September conversation. The section 103A ERA 1996 claim therefore succeeded, although the tribunal said there was a 50% chance the claimant would have been made redundant anyway and listed a remedy hearing for 7 October 2019.