Ms Zarifis v Lets Deel Limited — 2023

Ms Zarifis, employed as a Senior Mobility Specialist from 21 February 2022 and resigning with effect from 24 April 2023, applied for interim relief under sections 128 and 129 ERA 1996 in support of an alleged automatic unfair dismissal claim under section 103A ERA. The tribunal applied the authorities it cited, including the requirement that the claimant show a "pretty good chance" of succeeding, and treated the section 129 question as a broad, summary assessment of whether each element of the protected-disclosure dismissal case was likely to be made out.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant's risk ticket was likely to amount to a protected disclosure because it identified the respondent's employee-of-record model as prohibited and referred to possible consequences including loss of licence, fines and criminal liability. It also accepted that the claimant had raised the matter with the respondent before resigning. However, it was not satisfied that the claimant was likely to prove the alleged repudiatory breach, the alleged "final straw" conversation with Ms Sutherlin, or the alleged link between the disclosure and the treatment complained of.

On the evidence before it, the tribunal found a significant conflict between the claimant's and Ms Sutherlin's accounts of what was said about the authorising officer role and progression to team lead. It gave limited weight to the WhatsApp exchange with Ms Weron because it recorded the claimant recounting her own interpretation of the conversation, and it noted that the resignation response referred to performance issues predating the risk ticket and denied the claimant's account of retaliation. The tribunal concluded that the claimant had not crossed the interim-relief threshold and refused the application; it did not determine the final merits of the substantive unfair dismissal, whistleblowing detriment, or ordinary unfair dismissal claims.