A delivery business boss has been awarded more than £46,000 in compensation for constructive dismissal after he raised concerns about the safety of the e-bikes his company used.
Sébastien Potts was UK head of Urb-it, a Swedish delivery business that used e-bikes, and started working for the company in early 2021.
The company promoted an image of “accelerating sustainable urban logistics by offering fast, reliable, and emission-free deliveries”, and stored the bikes in hubs in London.
Potts raised concerns with the chief executive, Kevin Kviblad, in September 2022 that there was a high risk of fire in the hubs because of the charging process for the bikes’ lithium batteries.
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He said that there was a “risk to life of employees and the public”, and urged the company to take action to prevent this risk. He also wanted to know what his responsibility as a country director would be if something were to happen.
The tribunal heard that his fears had been prompted by a fire in 2022 in a railway arch near to one of the hubs, which had been caused by lithium batteries.
He suggested the company install fire-safe boxes for the batteries, but was told there were “funding constraints” that would prevent this.
He repeated his concerns a number of times, reiterating that company directors could be at risk of criminal prosecution for manslaughter.
The tribunal heard that Kviblad responded by saying that only Potts would be at risk because “all the other directors were Swedish citizens living in Sweden”. According to Swedish law, a corporation cannot commit a criminal act, and Kvibald would joke that there was no extradition agreement between the UK and Sweden.
Potts said: “Every time I raised my concerns I was reminded again there was no extradition order and I felt Kevin did not take this seriously”.
He made the decision to resign in October 2022 and arranged a Teams meeting where he aired his concerns again. In the meeting, he also raised issues of discrimination against women and black members of the team.
Potts asked for a nine-month notice period, but upon confirming his resignation, the company invoked his contractual notice of three months.
In judgment, Employment Judge Emery said Potts had been forced to resign because he blew the whistle on a number of safety complaints and that “his manager did not appear to take the issue seriously”, instead claiming that Potts would be liable if an accident occurred.
Emery said Potts’ treatment was a “repudiatory breach of contract, made because he raised whistleblowing allegations”, concluding he had been “automatically constructively dismissed”.
The company is now in voluntary liquidation. A remedy judgment has demanded it pay Potts more than £43,000 in lost pay and pensions, as well as expenses towards his relocation to Australia.
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