1. Ms C Hopley 2. Ms R McManus 3. Dr C Noyes v London Borough of Southwark — 2024

This was a preliminary hearing on the respondent's application to strike out the claimants' claims, including arguments based on earlier COT3 agreements for Ms Hopley and Ms McManus and alleged lack of reasonable prospects of success. The tribunal held that the COT3 wording did not compromise future claims and that it had not been shown the present claims arose from matters as at the date of those agreements.

Taking the pleaded cases at their highest, the tribunal found it could not say the unfair dismissal claims had no reasonable prospect of success, including on employee status and the asserted potentially fair reason for dismissal. The tribunal also declined to strike out the breach of contract pension contribution claims and noted that the wages claims were not limited to pension contributions but included alleged failure to pay a local government pay rise.

The tribunal said any age discrimination claim had not yet been made and was subject to a possible amendment application, so there was no such claim to strike out. It found Ms McManus's disability discrimination claim was not hopeless, and that the automatic unfair dismissal and whistleblowing detriment claims did not clearly merit strike-out. The claimants' claims were therefore not struck out, with no substantive liability or remedy determination made.