L Furbacher v London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council

Facts

Ms Laura Furbacher was employed by Deco UK Limited and assigned to the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council as a "Welcome and Support Officer" on the respondent's Homes for Ukraine project for some 15 months. By her claim form she alleged that she had suffered detriments because of protected disclosures, in particular disclosures made to senior employees of the respondent about criminal activities and/or breaches of regulatory matters and/or health and safety issues, and she also brought a claim of automatic unfair dismissal. On 2 September 2024, about six weeks after the ET3 was presented, she applied to amend her claim so that the unfair dismissal claim would be amended by the addition of termination of agency engagement. At a second case management preliminary hearing, Employment Judge Shaw, sitting at the London East Tribunal, refused the application to amend by a decision dated 16 December 2024, making thirteen separate short points, among them that the claimant had been represented by solicitors who would have known the difference between an automatic unfair dismissal claim under section 103A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and a detriment claim under section 47B, that the exercise was not one of rebadging, and that the amendments were entirely new factual allegations changing the basis of the existing claim. The claimant appealed, and the President of the EAT permitted two grounds to proceed to a full hearing.