Spencer West secures significant Employment Tribunal finding
Spencer West Employment Law partner Sharokh Koussari has successfully represented his client at the Central London Employment Tribunal.
The client, a former employee of the Embassy of Oman in London, had filed claims of discrimination, unfair dismissal and victimisation against their former employer. Before any determination on the employment matters can be made, Judge Brown presiding over the case had to initially rule as to whether the Embassy benefitted from State immunity. The substantive claim will take place in the autumn.
In the preliminary hearing the tribunal considered whether the Claimant’s functions whilst employed by the relevant department of the embassy were of a sovereign nature. (In other words, were the functions which the Claimant was employed to perform sufficiently close to the governmental functions of the mission). The Claimant proved that their functions were not of a sovereign nature; and also argued that the Embassy’s presentation of a substantive response did not mean that it had submitted to the jurisdiction of the employment tribunal. However, the Tribunal found in favour of the Claimant in holding that the Respondent had submitted to the jurisdiction of the employment tribunal in that it had “taken steps in the proceedings” within the meaning of Section 2 of the State Immunity Act 1978. These steps included the filing of the Response and a case management agenda in which the Respondent made representations which amounted to more than just claiming state immunity.
Spencer West Employment Law partner Sharokh Koussari comments on the significance of the case:
“This decision is of particular importance in laying the threshold of where employment functions lay in terms of being of a sovereign nature. Many recent decisions of this kind have gone in favour of the embassies in question.
“We are thrilled to have delivered a strong outcome for our client by successfully arguing the fundamental and complex issue of State Immunity. This case highlights the importance of employment law and the fact that State Immunity does not always provide a bullet point defence to embassies operating in the United Kingdom.”
ENDS
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