Claimant v Respondent — 2026

Mr Paul Dumitru, Mr Costel Busuioc, Mr Adrian Gal and Mr Daniel Dascalu worked for several weeks in January and February 2025 as labourers on the Isle of Grain project. They had contracts with Exchequer Contracts Ltd, a sub-agency used in the recruitment chain, but no written contracts with any respondent. Their claims concerned the termination of their engagement, which Mr Dumitru alleged followed health and safety concerns about toilets and water.

The Tribunal identified the sole substantive complaint as unfair dismissal under s.103A Employment Rights Act 1996, on the basis that the reason or principal reason for dismissal was alleged to be a protected disclosure. It held that the right not to be unfairly dismissed under Part X of the Act is limited to employees working under contracts of employment. Although the Act extends whistleblowing detriment protection to workers, including certain agency workers, that extended status does not permit a worker who is not an employee to bring an unfair dismissal claim.

Mr Dumitru accepted that he was not an employee, and nothing was advanced to suggest that the other claimants had a different status. The Tribunal considered whether the claim form included a separate whistleblowing detriment complaint, but found that no such complaint had been identified: the passing reference to detrimental treatment appeared to mean dismissal, and a later allegation that managers told Mr Dumitru to keep his mouth shut was not pleaded. The four unfair dismissal claims were therefore dismissed, and no monetary remedy was recorded.