Claimant v Industrial Turbine Company (UK) Ltd

Outcome

Facts

The claimant was an agency worker employed as a CAD Design Engineer from August 2022 on a six-month fixed-term contract. His line manager, Paul Rice, repeatedly raised concerns about his performance from October 2022, including taking up excessive time of colleagues, making too many calls, errors in work quality, and lack of attention to detail. On 18 January 2023, the claimant arranged a meeting with Canadian Export Control Officers (without Paul Rice's knowledge) where he claimed to have disclosed concerns about military classified data being transferred via Microsoft Teams. Paul Rice had already decided not to renew the claimant's contract in December 2022 and communicated this decision on 12 January 2023 and again formally on 18 January 2023 at 9:49am, before the alleged disclosure meeting. The claimant believed the non-renewal was due to his disclosure.

Decision

The tribunal unanimously dismissed the claim. It found that the decision not to renew the claimant's contract was made before the alleged protected disclosure on 18 January 2023, and Paul Rice had no knowledge of the disclosure when he confirmed the non-renewal decision. The non-renewal was due to the claimant's documented performance issues. The tribunal did not need to determine whether a protected disclosure was actually made, as the chronology and email evidence clearly demonstrated that the decision was made and communicated before any disclosure occurred and could not have materially influenced the outcome.

Practical note

Legal authorities cited