Strike Out Success for Wendy Miller as Tribunal Confirms Administrators not Liable as Employers

Wendy Miller has secured the strike out of multiple claims against administrators in a complex multi-respondent Employment Tribunal matter involving whistleblowing, unfair dismissal, and insolvency issues.

The Tribunal:

• Struck out claims for unfair dismissal and automatic unfair dismissal — the Claimant, a former Managing Director, was found not to be an employee of the administrators. The administrators were acting solely as agents of the company in administration, and not as employers under s.230 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
  
  This matter highlights the technical interplay between:
  
  Employment status post-administration, Statutory moratoria under Schedule B1 of the Insolvency Act 1986, Strict time limits in whistleblowing detriment claims under s.48 ERA 1996

• Struck out all whistleblowing detriment claims for being out of time — the Claimant sought to amend his claim 9 months late, relying on depression as the reason for the delay. The Tribunal found that this explanation did not satisfy the test for showing it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim in time or within a reasonable period, thereafter, particularly as the claimant was able to articulate and clarify his claims in the interim. The Respondent had also notified the claimant of the need to apply to amend his claim following further and better particulars. As a result, the whistleblowing detriment claims were struck out for being out of time.

A significant result in a case testing the boundaries of employment protection in insolvency and reinforcing the importance of jurisdictional rigour.