Miss N Ngonyma v Alpha Health and Care Services Limited and 3 others — 2024

The tribunal found that the claimant was an employee of Alpha Health and Care Services Limited under the written contract dated 8 October 2021. It accepted that she worked from particular times at the respondent's office, under direction, and without any right of substitution, and it did not need to decide whether she was also a worker.

On the whistleblowing allegations, the tribunal preferred the evidence of the second respondent and the other respondents. It found that the alleged protected disclosures in March 2022 and July/August 2022 did not happen, that there was no documentary support for them, and that the claimant's account was based on a misunderstanding of the agency arrangements and the HMRC position. The tribunal also accepted that the first reference to a whistleblowing claim appeared only on 25 November 2022. Because no protected disclosure was found, the detriment claim under s.47B ERA 1996 and the automatic unfair dismissal claim under s.103A ERA 1996 both failed.

The sex harassment claim also failed. The tribunal could not find on the balance of probabilities that Anthony Ige said the words alleged on 1 September 2022, and it relied on inconsistencies in the claimant's evidence together with the fact that her 2 September 2022 letter did not mention sexual harassment. It accepted that something said to the claimant was unacceptable, but not the full account advanced by her. The related victimisation claim under s.27 EqA 2010 failed as well.

The holiday pay and unlawful deduction claims were dismissed because the claimant gave no detail or supporting evidence sufficient for the tribunal to determine the alleged underpayments. The tribunal ended by observing that the first respondent should review its procedures and record-keeping, particularly its handling of the sexual harassment complaint and the absence of adequate records of the verbal warning. No monetary award was made.