Mr C Watson v Wallwork Nelson & Johnson and 1 other — 2020

The claimant's application for interim relief under section 128 Employment Rights Act 1996 was heard remotely at Manchester on 14 July 2020 before Employment Judge Dunlop. The tribunal noted that the claimant had been employed by the first respondent since 2010, later became associate partner designate, and that his status after the April 2019 move off payroll into fixed drawings was in dispute. The application was brought on the basis of an automatic unfair dismissal claim under section 103A ERA.

Applying the Taplin and section 129 ERA 1996 'pretty good chance' test, the judge considered whether the claimant was likely to succeed on the matters relevant to the final claim, including employee status. The judge treated the Ready Mixed Concrete employment-status test as important and concluded that the claimant had a respectable arguable case that he remained an employee, but was not likely to succeed on that issue at the interim relief stage. The judge also considered the alleged disclosures in emails of 10 March, 30 April and 1 May 2020.

The judge found that the 10 March 2020 email was likely to be a disclosure of information tending to show a failure to comply with legal obligations, namely tax and national insurance treatment of remuneration. The later emails were described as more questionable. Although the tribunal accepted that the causation case was arguable and said it would have been prepared to find that the disclosures were likely to be the principal reason for dismissal if protected disclosures were established, it was not satisfied that the claimant had a pretty good chance of showing that his belief in the public interest element was reasonable.

Because the tribunal was not satisfied that the claimant was likely to establish all matters required by section 129(1), including the employment-status and public-interest issues, the application for interim relief failed. The judgment recorded that the claims would continue and be listed for hearing in due course; no monetary remedy was awarded in this decision.