Mr K Russell Morgan v Headlands Venture Ltd — 2025

The claimant, Mr K Russell Morgan, applied for interim relief after presenting a claim on 12 December 2024 alleging that he had been automatically unfairly dismissed for making protected disclosures. The tribunal treated the application as having been made in the claim form, notwithstanding some ambiguity in the form about whether employment was continuing, and noted that the issue before it was only whether interim relief should be granted, not the final merits of any underlying unfair dismissal claim.

Applying ss.128 and 129 ERA 1996, the tribunal asked whether it was likely that the claimant would succeed at final hearing on the relevant issues. It accepted that there were disputed facts about employee status and dismissal. On the material before it, however, the claimant had not shown that it was likely he would establish that he was an employee rather than a casual or non-employee worker, and he had also not shown that it was likely he would establish that he had been dismissed by the respondent rather than having ended the relationship himself before 6 December 2024.

The tribunal accepted that the First Averred Disclosure and Second Averred Disclosure contained disclosures of information. It found, however, that the claimant had not shown that it was likely those disclosures were made in the public interest, or that they were likely to be found to tend to show any of the matters relied on under s.43B(1)(b), (c) or (d) ERA 1996. The tribunal said the messages could be read as the claimant explaining that he was ill and would not attend work, rather than as raising a public-interest whistleblowing concern.

On causation, the claimant's position at the hearing was that he had been dismissed because of his mental health breakdown and the respondent's desire not to make reasonable adjustments for his disability. The tribunal held that this meant it was not likely that he would prove that any protected disclosure was the reason or principal reason for dismissal. The application for interim relief therefore failed.