{"id":4903,"date":"2016-09-27T21:26:38","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T21:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplylaw.waydevelopers.com\/england-wales\/wiki\/morgan-v-royal-mencap-societ\/"},"modified":"2023-11-04T13:12:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T13:12:06","slug":"morgan-v-royal-mencap-societ","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/simply.law\/england-wales\/articles\/morgan-v-royal-mencap-societ\/","title":{"rendered":"Struck out too soon?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">In Morgan v Royal Mencap Society, the EAT has reminded us of the difficulty of striking out claims at a preliminary hearing, this time in the context of whether an employee\u2019s complaints about her cramped working conditions could meet the \u2018public interest\u2019 requirement of a protected disclosure under the \u2018whistleblowing\u2019 regime.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><b><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Facts<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Ms Morgan was a former employee of the Royal Mencap Society. Following her resignation she brought numerous claims against Mencap including claims that she had been subjected to various detriments because of complaints she had made.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Ms Morgan claimed that two complaints she had made, that her cramped working conditions were adversely affecting her injured knee and causing lower back pain amounted to \u2018protected disclosures\u2019.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">As many of you will already be aware, since legislative amendments in June 2013 there is now a requirement for any \u2018protected disclosures\u2019 to be \u2018in the public interest\u2019. The change to the legislation was made in response to a number of claims being based <g class=\"gr_ gr_41 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace\" id=\"41\" data-gr-id=\"41\">around<\/g> employees\u2019 complaints concerning breaches of their own terms and conditions of employment, which it was felt was outside the intended scope of the legislation. An employee now has to demonstrate that he or she \u2018reasonably believed\u2019 that his or her complaints were made in the public interest.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">In this instance, Ms Morgan explained that she believed her disclosures were in the public interest because Mencap is a charity, financially supported by the public, and the public <g class=\"gr_ gr_55 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_run_anim Punctuation replaceWithoutSep\" id=\"55\" data-gr-id=\"55\">would therefore<\/g> be interested to know how the charity treated its employees. She further argued that the issues she raised potentially presented a threat to the health and safety of others.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Perhaps unsurprisingly Mencap applied to strike out Ms Morgan&#8217;s whistleblowing-related claims on the basis they did not meet the \u2018public interest\u2019 test. These issues were considered at a preliminary hearing. Crucially, at the hearing limited oral evidence was presented and none at all from Ms Morgan.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">The employment judge concluded that Ms Morgan&#8217;s disclosures were not a matter of public interest and it could not be Ms Morgan&#8217;s reasonable belief that they were. <g class=\"gr_ gr_37 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_run_anim Punctuation replaceWithoutSep\" id=\"37\" data-gr-id=\"37\">He therefore<\/g> dismissed the whistleblowing claims.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Ms Morgan appealed and her appeal was successful, largely on the basis that it was wrong to strike out the claim without having heard Ms Morgan\u2019s oral evidence.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">The EAT concluded that there was potential merit in Ms Morgan\u2019s arguments and that the evidence, when heard, might show that Ms Morgan&#8217;s complaints met the public interest test. The <g class=\"gr_ gr_48 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_run_anim Punctuation replaceWithoutSep\" id=\"48\" data-gr-id=\"48\">EAT therefore<\/g> remitted the claim back to the tribunal to continue to a substantive hearing before a different employment judge.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><b><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Comment<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">The case is a useful reminder of the high threshold that is required before a tribunal can exercise its power to strike out a claim as having no reasonable prospects of success and that this is particularly true for discrimination and whistleblowing claims, <g class=\"gr_ gr_46 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep\" id=\"46\" data-gr-id=\"46\">where<\/g> strike out is rarely appropriate without hearing the evidence. It will be interesting to see whether Ms Morgan\u2019s public interest arguments persuade the employment tribunal at the full hearing of this case.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><i><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">Morgan v Royal Mencap Society UKEAT\/0272\/15, 22 January 2016 (<g class=\"gr_ gr_32 gr-alert gr_spell gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace\" id=\"32\" data-gr-id=\"32\">Bailii<\/g>).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Morgan v Royal Mencap Society, the EAT has reminded us of the difficulty of striking out claims at a preliminary hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7975,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12331,12329],"tags":[11559,11557,11558,11560,11561],"class_list":{"0":"post-4903","1":"articles","2":"type-articles","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-employment-law-for-employees","8":"category-employment-law-for-employers","9":"tag-cramped-working-conditions","10":"tag-morgan-v-royal-mencap-society","11":"tag-protected-disclosure","12":"tag-public-interest","13":"tag-whistleblowing-claims"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Struck out too soon? - Simply Law England Wales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;Explore our comprehensive collection of legal articles covering various topics to help you navigate the complexities of the law. 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