- IN PERSON FOR THE v - Ms M Wahabi — 2024

The tribunal heard the claimant's application for interim relief on 22 November 2024, sitting alone, and recorded that it had heard no evidence and was not making findings of fact. The underlying claim was one of unfair dismissal and/or automatic unfair dismissal under section 103A ERA 1996, said to arise from public interest disclosures. The respondent's case was that the claimant was dismissed for disciplinary reasons, namely accessing, reviewing and forwarding images from a colleague's phone without permission, refusing to assist in the investigation, and disclosing the contents of his suspension letter.

Applying the interim relief test under sections 128 and 129 ERA 1996 and the authorities it cited, the tribunal held that it was likely the claimant would be able to establish the elements of a protected disclosure. It treated the claimant's grievance and related complaints about CCTV and data protection as capable, on the papers before it, of amounting to a qualifying disclosure, and said that if the claimant's account of contacting the ICO was correct it would on its face be sufficient to establish a reasonable belief.

The application failed because the tribunal was not satisfied that there was a likely causal link between any protected disclosure and the dismissal. It said there was nothing before it which would allow a finding that it was likely the final tribunal would conclude that the disclosure itself was the reason or principal reason for dismissal, and noted that the claimant's own submissions relied on a looser connection to the disclosure. Interim relief was therefore dismissed.