Mr A Ikeji v Office of Rail and Road and 4 others — 2022

At the hearing on 24 October 2022, Employment Judge Russell dealt with the Claimant's application for interim relief and the Respondents' application to strike out the claims. The case concerned allegations including race discrimination, harassment, victimisation, breach of contract, unlawful deduction from wages, whistleblowing dismissal, and disability discrimination arising from role allocation, training, part-time working, pay from 10 May 2022, and the dismissal process.

On interim relief, the tribunal applied the s.128 and s.129 ERA 1996 test and the Taplin "pretty good chance" approach. It concluded that the 24 May 2022 email to Ms Thornhill and the attached documents did not show a pretty good chance of establishing a qualifying disclosure tending to show breach of legal obligation or health and safety, did not show that any disclosure was in the public interest, and did not show a pretty good chance that dismissal was because of a protected disclosure. The judge also found that the two versions of the appeal-hearing notes did not reveal any material difference and did not support an inference that the Respondent was concealing Equality Act breaches.