Josh Woodcock v Balfour Beatty Group Employment Limited — 2024

The Claimant applied for interim relief after being dismissed on 17 June 2024. He alleged that the reason or principal reason for dismissal was that he had made protected disclosures to the Institution of Railway Signalling Engineers concerning signalling work, record keeping and logbook entries. He confirmed that his case was limited to disclosures said to show danger to health and safety.

On summary assessment, the Tribunal did not find that the Claimant had a pretty good chance of establishing that any of the three alleged disclosures was a qualifying disclosure. The Tribunal accepted that the first communication included factual information, but found that the Claimant had not shown a pretty good chance of establishing a genuine and reasonable belief that the information tended to show health and safety was endangered. The Tribunal reached similar conclusions on the second and third alleged disclosures, noting the focus on record keeping or alleged fraud rather than explained health and safety implications.

The Tribunal also found that the Claimant did not have a pretty good chance of establishing causation. Although the IRSE communication was referred to in the disciplinary process and was part of the stated reason for dismissal, the Tribunal considered that the stated concern was the motivation for the complaint, namely a personal grudge, rather than the content of a protected disclosure. The application for interim relief was therefore dismissed, while the Tribunal noted that the underlying automatic unfair dismissal claim could still be argued at a final hearing.