E.T. Z (WR) EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case Nos: 4101437/2022 & 4101570/20225 Held at Aberdeen on October 2022 Employment Judge J M Hendry Ms L Gordon st v Respondent — 2022

This was a preliminary jurisdiction hearing on agreed facts and skeleton arguments. The respondent sought strike out of the claims, but the tribunal first refused a transfer of Mr Patten's case to England and Wales and rejected the submission that the respondent had accepted jurisdiction by lodging a merits defence; it held that the appearance had been entered to contest jurisdiction. The tribunal applied the territorial jurisdiction authorities, including Lawson v Serco, Ravat, Windstar and Todd, to decide whether each claimant had a sufficiently strong connection with Great Britain.

For Ms L Gordon, the tribunal held that it had jurisdiction to deal with her claims under the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Equality Act 2010. It accepted that she was a peripatetic employee, noted that she lived in Aberdeen, was paid into a bank account there, completed HMRC tax returns, and had contractual clauses selecting the law of England and Wales and the jurisdiction of the English courts. It also took account of the fact that redundancy was calculated by reference to full weekly salary and years worked, and it treated her home address as her base for these purposes. On that basis, the tribunal held that her unfair dismissal, protected-disclosure, section 44 detriment, disability discrimination, and victimisation claims could proceed.

For Mr G Patten, the tribunal accepted that his work was also peripatetic, but held that his connection with Great Britain was not sufficiently strong. It noted that he lived in the Republic of Ireland, was paid in euros into a Jersey account, and worked on a vessel that had not entered UK ports or UK waters since 5 August 2016, although he had been interviewed in Plymouth and had started one role there. The tribunal concluded that those UK connections were too limited to found jurisdiction, so it had no jurisdiction to entertain his unfair dismissal claim and dismissed it.