Miss A Lopez v Foxtons Ltd — 2024

Miss Lopez worked for Foxtons as a lettings negotiator from 17 July 2023 until her dismissal on 28 September 2023, during her probationary period. She applied for interim relief under s128 Employment Rights Act 1996, saying she had made protected disclosures about excessive office temperature and related health and safety concerns. Foxtons denied that those communications were protected disclosures and said the dismissal resulted from performance and behaviour concerns and a breakdown in trust and confidence.

The tribunal dismissed the interim relief application. Applying the whistleblowing framework under s103A and the interim relief threshold, and referring to Chesterton Global Ltd v Nurmohamed, it held that there was a real question whether the alleged disclosures were in the public interest, because they concerned an unsatisfactory temperature issue in a single workplace affecting a small number of employees and clients and were closer to a private dispute than a matter of broader public interest.

The tribunal also held that Miss Lopez had not shown it was likely that the principal reason for dismissal was the alleged protected disclosures. It said there were competing plausible explanations for the dismissal, little direct evidence of Mr Shah's decision-making, and no basis to draw the suggested inference from documentary material that had not been produced. It also noted that the lunch-break grievance issues were separate from the s103A claim. No interim relief was granted and no monetary remedy was awarded in this judgment.