Member N Elliot Tribunal Member S Singh Mr S Cusick v Alba Orbital Limited — 2021

Sean Cusick worked for Alba Orbital Ltd from 25 August 2018 as Head of Business Development. The case concerned whether he had made protected disclosures about a possible Scottish Enterprise grant and an ESA grant, and whether his later suspension, pension deduction and dismissal were linked to those disclosures. The tribunal also examined the circumstances of the Space Up Glasgow event on 6 July 2019, including Mr Andrew Dunn's attendance and presentation and the use of the Alba Pod 96P at the event.

The tribunal held, on balance, that the claimant had not made protected disclosures. It accepted that he had objected to being asked to "fudge" matters on the Scottish Enterprise application and had concerns about the ESA budget, but found that his belief that these matters amounted to wrongdoing was not reasonable in all the circumstances. It also found that the issues were private matters rather than matters in the public interest for the purposes of section 43B ERA 1996. In reaching that view, the tribunal referred to Chesterton Global Ltd v Nurmohamed and Kilraine v Wandsworth London Borough Council, together with the statutory wording.

On dismissal, the tribunal found that Ms Irene Shanks genuinely believed the claimant had committed gross misconduct and that her reason for dismissal was the conflict of interest created by the Space Up event, Mr Dunn's attendance, and the use of the respondent's deployer without permission. It accepted that the grievance handling was defective and described the omission as troubling, but held that this did not show the dismissal process was a sham or that protected disclosures were the true reason. The tribunal also found that the detriment allegations failed because the suspension followed the event and the pension deduction was a payroll error, not retaliation for disclosure. The claim was dismissed and issue 4 on remedy did not arise.