E.T. Z (WR) EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 4111372/20215 Held at Inverness on & February and & April 2023 and June 2023 Employment Judge J M Hendry Members A Sillars J McCaig Ms V Smith v Cocoa Mountain Ltd — 2023

The tribunal dismissed the claimant's unfair dismissal claim, which it approached through s.103A ERA 1996 and the law on protected disclosures, together with her claims for accrued but unpaid wages and failure to provide wage statements. The claimant had less than two years' service for an ordinary unfair dismissal claim, so the case turned on whether the grievance letter of 15 April 2021 and the accompanying stage 1 grievance amounted to protected disclosures and whether dismissal on 28 April 2021 was because of them.

The tribunal found that the wage-slip and furlough complaints were longstanding disputes about pay calculation and were not presented as protected disclosures or allegations of wrongdoing. It also found no sufficient public interest element in those complaints. The issues about the ramp at Dornoch and the cleaning materials for the shop did not amount to protected disclosures either: the ramp had only minor erosion and had previously been inspected, and the shop was not due to open for some weeks, so there was no immediate breach risk on the facts accepted by the tribunal.

Even if any of those matters could have amounted to disclosures, the tribunal found that the directors did not regard the grievance material as raising an actual breach of obligation. It held that the dismissal was caused by a breakdown in the employment relationship and mistrust, including earlier dissatisfaction about the claimant's management of Balnakeil, the designer-form issue, the database work, and the events of 14 April 2021 in Dornoch, rather than by any protected disclosure. The tribunal recorded that the claimant's outstanding wage slips were later supplied and that her final payslip included £1,006 for 84 hours previously deducted before Christmas, but it made no monetary award.