Leathes Prior Employment Team in EAT Success

Leathes Prior’s Employment Team, led by Senior Associate Gareth Stevens, have backed up obtaining interim relief for their client at the Employment Tribunal (a rare outcome indeed) with a successful Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) judgment.

Leathes Prior had obtained interim relief for their client at the Employment Tribunal earlier in 2019 – for a more detailed analysis of what interim relief is, please see an earlier article published by the Team on this matter here.

The EAT - in Hancock v Ter-Berg and Anor - dismissed the appeal against the Employment Tribunal’s decision, which had been brought on the basis that as the claimant’s employment status was in dispute, interim relief was not appropriate.

The EAT held that an Employment Tribunal may hear an application for interim relief in a whistleblowing dismissal claim even where the claimant’s ‘employee’ status (and thus his or her right to claim unfair dismissal) is in dispute. The EAT concluded that the law requires the tribunal to consider whether the unfair dismissal claim is likely to succeed and all elements of the complaint, including the issue of employment status, should be subject to the ‘likely to succeed’ test at the interim relief hearing.

Gareth Stevens, a Senior Associate in the Employment Team said that “This is a fantastic result for the client in this whistleblowing case especially in a particular complex and niche area of the law – we were confident that the Employment Tribunal at first instance had approached the matter correctly so it is pleasing that the EAT have concluded likewise.”