Isle of Wight Council

Judgment approved by the court for a hand down Sullivan v Isle of Wight Council © EAT 2024 Page 1 [2024] EAT 3 Neutral Citation Number: [2024] EAT 3 Case No: EA-2022-000240-OO EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL Rolls Building Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1NL Date: 22 January 2024 Before : THE HONOURABLE MRS JUSTICE ELLENBOGEN DBE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Between : MISS P SULLIVAN Appellant - and – ISLE OF WIGHT COUNCIL Respondent - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - JEFFREY JUPP (instructed through Advocate) for the Appellant FERGUS MCCOMBIE (instructed by Isle of Wight Council) for the Respondent Hearing date: 04 July 2023 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - JUDGMENT Judgment approved by the court for a hand down Sullivan v Isle of Wight Council © EAT 2024 Page 2 [2024] EAT 3 SUMMARY JURISDICTION, EMPLOYEE, WORKER OR SELF-EMPLOYED The Appellant had presented claims under the Employment Rights Act 1996 (‘the ERA’) contending that, as a job applicant, she had been subjected to detriments on the ground that she had made protected public interest disclosures. Following a preliminary hearing, the employment tribunal determined that, having regard to the four questions to which the Supreme Court had referred in Gilham v Ministry of Justice [2019] ICR 1655, it lacked jurisdiction to consider those complaints. On appeal, its answers to the second to fourth of those questions were subject to challenge. It was said that the tribunal’s findings contravened the Appellant’s rights under Articles 10 and 14 ECHR. Dismissing the appeal, the EAT held that the tribunal had been right to conclude that the Appellant had not been treated less favourably than others in an analogous situation and that external job applicant did not constitute ‘some other status’ for the purposes of Article 14.…