R Ibakakombo (lay representative) For the v J Middleton (solicitor) — 2024

At the 16 December 2024 CVP hearing, Employment Judge Anderson considered the respondent's application to strike out or seek deposit orders on the claimant's automatic unfair dismissal allegations. The claimant had worked for DHL Services Limited as a warehouse operative from 19 January 2022 until his dismissal on 1 December 2022. The ruling dealt only with the s100 and s103A ERA 1996 heads of claim; it did not determine any race discrimination or wages issues mentioned in the background history.

The tribunal struck out the s100 health and safety automatic unfair dismissal claim under Rule 37. It held that the claimant had not put forward any basis to show that it was not reasonably practicable to raise health and safety concerns through the respondent's proper channels, and the case as presented was simply about wanting light duties during convalescence. The judge concluded that, on the material before the tribunal, the s100 claim had no reasonable prospect of success.

On the s103A protected disclosure claim, the tribunal applied the approach in Cox v Adecco, and noted the fact-sensitive nature of discrimination and whistleblowing claims in Anyanwu and Ezsias. It considered that the alleged disclosures were likely to be personal employment disputes rather than disclosures made in the public interest, but could not say with certainty that the claim had no reasonable prospect of success without hearing evidence from the claimant about what he said and what was in his mind at the time. The tribunal therefore made a deposit order of £100 in respect of each of the two allegations under s103A, and the claim was not finally disposed of in this judgment.