M Kearns Mr R Coulter v Mj Fort UK Ltd — 2026

Mr Coulter was employed by MJ Fort UK Ltd from 1 April 2025 until 27 July 2025 as manager of its Monterey Jack's restaurant at Glasgow Fort. The respondent did not defend the claim and did not attend the hearing. The claimant pursued complaints of automatically unfair dismissal for making protected disclosures, holiday pay, and arrears of pay; he withdrew the arrears of pay claim at the hearing.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant disclosed information to the respondent about expired fire safety certification, the absence of a professional process for sanitary bin waste, and a junior employee repeatedly cleaning floor mops in food preparation sinks. It found those disclosures had sufficient factual content, were believed by the claimant to be in the public interest, and reasonably tended to show failures to comply with legal obligations and danger to staff or customer health and safety. A later disclosure about legal breaks for a 16 year old worker was also found to be a protected disclosure, but the tribunal did not find it was a reason or principal reason for dismissal because the respondent had already expressed an intention to dismiss the claimant on 10 July 2025.

On causation, the tribunal found on the balance of probabilities that the reason or principal reason for dismissal was the protected disclosures about fire safety certification, sanitary waste disposal, and mop cleaning. It noted that the claimant's probationary period had expired on 1 July 2025 without performance or suitability issues being raised, that the claimant continued to press the fire certification and hygiene matters, and that the respondent's allocation of about 75 hours' work to him on 20 July did not appear consistent with any genuine reason for dismissal. The dismissal was therefore unfair under section 103A Employment Rights Act 1996.

The tribunal made no basic award because the claimant did not have sufficient service. It awarded a compensatory award of £3,558 for five weeks' unemployment from 28 July to 31 August 2025, based on weekly pay of £711.54 and rounded to the nearest whole pound; the Employment Protection (Recoupment of Benefits) Regulations 1996 applied. It also awarded £348 for three days' accrued but untaken holiday pay. The combined sum ordered was £3,906.