Mr B Dhariwal, Solicitor For the v Respondent — 2018

The claimant was employed by the respondent NHS Trust as In-patient Services Matron. She alleged that her line manager, Ms Melanie Carr, was regularly leaving early and that she raised those concerns first with Ms Denise Sullivan on 30 June 2017 and again at a meeting on 4 July 2017. The tribunal found that she did not say she was making a whistleblowing complaint, did not refer to patient safety or breach of contract at the relevant meetings, and did not have a reasonable belief that Ms Carr was absent without authority or that any legal obligation had been breached.

The tribunal accepted that relations between the claimant and Ms Carr broke down after 4 July 2017, but it found that the resulting reduction in informal contact, the transfer of some line management to Ms Abiola Jinadu, and the absence of further one-to-ones did not amount to ostracism or detriment. It also found no evidence that Mr O'Leary or Ms Heed treated the claimant adversely because of any protected disclosure. On that basis, the public interest disclosure detriment claim was dismissed.

On dismissal, the tribunal held that the claimant had decided by July 2017 to leave and had started looking for another Band 7 post, later resigning on 11 October 2017. It found that the respondent did not breach the implied term of mutual trust and confidence and that, even if there had been any breach, the claimant had affirmed it by continuing in employment after July 2017. The constructive unfair dismissal claim was therefore dismissed, and because she had not established protected disclosures, the automatic unfair dismissal claim under section 103A ERA 1996 also failed. The provisional remedy hearing was vacated.