Mr R Mysakowski v Broxburn Bottlers Limited — 2023

This was a remote preliminary hearing before Employment Judge Sangster to determine whether Mr R Mysakowski had made a protected disclosure and whether, at the relevant time from 13 February to 18 April 2023, he held a protected philosophical belief. The tribunal heard evidence from the claimant and from Tom Young for the respondent, and it recorded that the remaining issues would proceed to a final hearing.

On the protected disclosure issue, the tribunal preferred the claimant's account of the discussion on 13 April 2023. It found that he told Mr Young he had witnessed a senior male manager massaging the shoulders and neck of a junior female employee, that he understood the employee felt uncomfortable, and that he asked for workplace-wide guidance on appropriate and inappropriate conduct. Applying section 43B ERA 1996 and the guidance in Kilraine and Simpson, the tribunal held that this was information with sufficient factual content and specificity, that the claimant reasonably believed it tended to show a failure to comply with obligations under the Equality Act 2010, and that he reasonably believed disclosure was in the public interest.

On the philosophical belief issue, the respondent challenged whether ethical veganism was genuinely held at the relevant time, relying in part on the claimant's earlier sale of leather handbags. The tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence that he became an ethical vegan in September 2021, had almost entirely excluded animal-exploitation products from his life by 13 February 2023, and that the belief affected what he ate, wore, used and where he worked. It held that ethical veganism satisfied the Grainger criteria, including the fifth criterion as explained in Forstater, and so constituted a protected philosophical belief under section 10 Equality Act 2010.