A former secretary has been granted permission by an employment tribunal to proceed with legal action against her former employers. Ms M Wright claimed to the tribunal that she had been dismissed unfairly by SFE Chetwode Ltd of Melton Mowbray as a result of her having raised the issue of being served two pots of mouldy cheese accompanied with her jacket potato. Ms Wright had joined the firm in June 2023 and her complaint concerning the cheese incident occurred in May 2024. She alleged a “deliberate concealment of health and safety endangerment” on the part of the SFE when she was told to dispose of the contaminated cheese and to “be discreet” about the matter.
SFE disputes Ms Wright’s claim, stating that the two pots of cheese were, in fact, served with pepper and added that Ms Wright was dismissed “with immediate effect” in July after a disciplinary hearing found her to have been “rude and unproductive”. The tribunal heard that colleagues had raised concerns with regards to Ms Wright’s behaviour around the same time. Ms Wright said that she felt her complaints about the cheese had been “belittled” and that she had not been allowed a union representative at her disciplinary hearing.
Whilst Ms Wright’s concerns over the potential “microbiological safety” of the cheese may have had some merit, they were collectively “doomed to fail” an employment judge, Richard Adkinson, stated. Mr Adkinson did, however, grant her the permission to proceed with her claim about the cheese but only if she first pays a deposit of £1,000. Moreover, all Ms Wright’s claims of unfair dismissal against her former employers were struck out despite her use of AI service, ChatGPT, to assist her submissions.
The issue of ‘whistleblowing’ continues to be a pertinent issue in the employment sector, wherein people who raise concerns of wrongdoing within their organisation in the public interest generally do so at a high risk to themselves (non-disclosure agreement clauses aside). An employee who makes a protected disclosure, and who suffers a detriment, including dismissal or other forms of disciplinary action, as a result, may have a claim for ‘whistleblowing’ under UK employment law
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