However, the tribunal found no evidence to support his claim that his line manager had knowledge of or was influenced by these concerns. In fact, the tribunal stated that the line manager had already made the decision to end Plauszewski’s contract in December 2022, well before the meeting took place in January 2023.
Performance Issues Undermine Whistleblower Argument
According to the tribunal, Plauszewski’s performance had been unsatisfactory from the start. He was reported to have made excessive calls, spent too much time on them, and overstepped his bounds by editing colleagues’ models. His work also suffered from errors, such as submitting incorrect drawings to his line manager. These performance issues were flagged by his superiors as early as October 2022.
Despite these concerns, the company delayed informing Plauszewski of their decision until January 2023, due to the holiday period. The tribunal’s judgment emphasized that the timeline of events suggested the firing was based on his performance, not any protected disclosures he may have made.
No Need to Assess Whistleblowing Legitimacy
The tribunal noted that it didn’t need to assess whether Plauszewski’s concerns about the data transfer constituted a protected disclosure, since his poor performance had already been established as the primary reason for his dismissal.