Mr N Rumsey v Savills Management Resource — 2025

Mr N Rumsey was employed by Savills Management Resource as a night concierge from 27 March 2024 to 29 May 2025. After his dismissal he brought an automatic unfair dismissal claim under section 103A ERA and, with his ET1 presented on 30 May 2025, applied for interim relief. The hearing took place on 20 June 2025 before Employment Judge N Wilson, and the application was refused.

The claimant said he had made protected disclosures about a resident who had taken footage of him asleep at work and threatened to circulate it unless the claimant met demands. He said he raised the matter with police and with his line manager, Mr Francesco Furcas, and relied on that disclosure as the reason for his dismissal. The respondent said the reason for dismissal was the claimant’s conduct, namely falling asleep while on duty, and the tribunal had before it the investigation and disciplinary material, including a draft ET3, minutes, the outcome letter and the appeal letter.

Applying sections 128 and 129 ERA 1996 and the "pretty good chance" threshold explained by reference to Ministry of Justice v Sarfraz, the tribunal held that the claimant had not shown a sufficiently strong prospect of succeeding on the interim relief application. It identified difficulties over whether the claimant had made a qualifying protected disclosure, including the public interest element and whether the information said to have been disclosed amounted to a qualifying disclosure at all. The tribunal also noted that the respondent advanced a separate explanation for dismissal based on conduct, and that the claimant accepted he had fallen asleep on the job.

The tribunal therefore refused interim relief. It stated that the refusal was based on the limited material available at this stage and should not be treated as a ruling on the underlying claim itself or as a factual finding binding the final tribunal.