Mr N Clarke of Counsel For the v Respondent — 2019

The tribunal heard a preliminary jurisdiction hearing because the claimant, Mr Simon Brown, had worked overseas throughout his employment with VSO. It accepted that he was a British citizen and that he had some links with the UK, including recruitment and training in the UK, occasional UK visits, UK-based HR and medical support, and a contract for Bangladesh issued in October 2016 that was governed by the law of England and Wales.

The tribunal also accepted that VSO was a UK-registered charity and that some administrative functions were centralised in the UK, but it found that the claimant's work was principally overseas. By the time of dismissal on 23 July 2018 he was based in Bangladesh, had been there for around three years, reported mainly to managers based overseas, and was responsible for VSO's Bangladesh programmes. The tribunal noted that he was not a member of a UK pension scheme, that the tax equalisation policy operated globally, and that local taxes were paid on his behalf in Bangladesh.

Applying the territorial jurisdiction principles from Lawson v Serco and considering the comparison cases of Jeffery v British Council and Green v SIG Trading Limited, the tribunal held that the claimant's UK connections were not sufficiently strong to overcome the general rule that an employee who works and is based abroad will not usually fall within British employment protection. It concluded that VSO was not a public body, that the claimant had not been employed in an extra-territorial enclave or on a UK business abroad in the relevant sense, and that the contract terms, UK support services and occasional UK visits were not enough to confer jurisdiction. The tribunal therefore held that it had no jurisdiction to consider the unfair dismissal and disability discrimination claims, and both were dismissed.