Julie Duane acts for the Respondent in successfully defending all 4 grounds of appeal

On 27 June 2023 the Employment Appeal Tribunal (Judge Susan Walker) handed down Judgment in A v Carers Trust South East Wales [2023] EAT 80, which provides useful clarification as to how a tribunal is to approach claims for whistleblowing, disability discrimination, harassment and victimisation. Julie Duane acted for the Respondent in successfully defending all 4 grounds of appeal.

As part of the appeal, it was held that the Tribunal had identified the correct issues to be determined at the final hearing following consideration of the ET1, the Order presented after 4 preliminary hearings and various Scott Schedules adduced by the Claimant. Part of the appeal related to the question of whether the Tribunal had erred by not considering a claim of victimisation in the Scott Schedule, but not the ET1. It was imported from the Tribunal Order that the new claim(s) in the Scott Schedule (of which there were originally 27 victimisation claims) would not be allowed to proceed without the permission of the Tribunal to amend the claim. No permission was sought by the Claimant.

The appeal was multifaceted and comprised a number of sub-grounds of appeal, particularly in relation to the protected disclosure claims. The Judgment reiterated the correct structured approach that the tribunal should take when considering whether a qualifying disclosure has been made, as per Kilraine v London Borough of Wandsworth 2018 ICR 1850 and recently confirmed by the EAT in Williams v Michelle Brown AM UKEAT/0044/19/00.

Further details of the case and a link to the EAT Judgment is here >>>