Mr C Yates v Fife Council — 2022

The claimant had brought a claim under section 47B of the Employment Rights Act 1996 alleging detriments on the ground of making protected disclosures about Covid-related matters. He sought to amend the claim to add 13 additional alleged detriments concerning the respondent's attendance management procedures and related handling of his absence and return to work.

The Tribunal held that the proposed amendment did not introduce a new cause of action. Although the additional detriments were not pleaded in the ET1, the management of the claimant's absence was part of the existing factual matrix, so the amendments expanded the scope of the existing claim rather than raising substantially different areas of enquiry.

The Tribunal found that the time-limit question could not be determined without evidence on whether the alleged matters formed a series of similar acts or failures. Balancing prejudice, it found the prejudice to the respondent was minimal and the prejudice to the claimant would be significant if the amendment were refused. The amendment was therefore granted, with the jurisdiction and time-limit issues reserved to the final hearing.