Mr M Williams v Fife Council — 2023

The Tribunal refused the claimant's application to amend his claim to add a protected disclosure detriment claim under section 47B Employment Rights Act 1996. It found this would be a substantial amendment adding a new cause of action, that most of the alleged detriments appeared to be out of time, and that the claimant had not pleaded facts linking the alleged detriments to the alleged protected disclosures. The Tribunal did, however, permit the claimant to amend his existing section 103A automatic unfair dismissal claim to include an alleged protected disclosure made on 7 July 2021.

On the strike-out application, the Tribunal took the claimant's case at its highest and considered the alleged disclosures in August 2020 and July 2021. It found that the claimant's pleaded case did not set out facts from which a Tribunal could conclude that the reason or principal reason for dismissal was the making of protected disclosures. The Tribunal considered that the claimant's own account pointed to an ongoing dispute about the nature of his role and how he should do his job, rather than a dismissal caused by the alleged disclosures.

The Tribunal concluded that, even if the claimant proved the facts he had pleaded, the automatic unfair dismissal claim had no reasonable prospect of success. It therefore struck out the section 103A claim under Rule 37(1)(a). No remedy was awarded.