EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 8000892/2025 Held in Aberdeen on 3, & October 2025 Employment Judge J M Hendry Mr A Harbhajanka v Respondent — 2025

The claimant brought detriment complaints said to arise from two alleged protected disclosures. The tribunal applied s.43B ERA 1996 and the authorities it cited, including Williams v Michelle Brown, Kilraine v London Borough of Wandsworth, Chesterton Global Ltd v Nurmohamed, Twist DX v Armes and Kraus v Penna, to decide whether the claimant had made qualifying disclosures in June 2022 and December 2023.

On the Diadem matter, the claimant emailed Julian Rippiner on 26 June 2022 about the use of non-sour-resistant casing and said the operator's well design did not meet Shell's process safety standards. The tribunal accepted that the claimant genuinely held concerns about offshore safety and the marine environment, but found that the communication did not disclose information tending to show that Shell had breached a legal obligation, endangered health and safety, damaged the environment, or deliberately concealed such matters. It found the issue was being actively addressed by senior managers, with escalation to the regulator being treated as a last resort, and characterised the dispute as one about tactics rather than concealment or wrongdoing.

On the Mars GDP issue, the claimant objected on 5 December 2023 to moving reference to the Energy Profits Levy extension out of the risks section of the document. The tribunal found that the GDP remained transparent about the EPL issue, that any oral challenge was not sufficiently clear to amount to a qualifying disclosure, and that there was no proper evidential basis for allegations of fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of Companies Act duties, or deliberate concealment. It concluded that this was again a difference of opinion about how the risk should be presented, not a protected disclosure. Because the detriment claims depended on those alleged disclosures, the tribunal dismissed the case and no award was made.