The Claimant was a union rep. He was dismissed after the Respondent had reason to believe that the Claimant had obtained and shared sensitive company information relating to individuals within the business. The ET ruled that his dismissal was automatically unfair - the claimant was acting in the capacity of a trade union representative, storing and then sharing the information (to the extent of referring to it in the collective grievance letter) because of concerns raised with him by members. The EJ also held that in the ordinary unfair dismissal claim she would have found the dismissal to be unfair. The EAT overturned this decision (read the judgment here saying that the EJ had failed to consider whether the dismissal for the wrongful or unlawful retention of confidential information for trade union purposes enjoyed the protection of section 152. The Claimant appealed.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal. The very limited way in which the Claimant made use of the leaked information, which directly concerned his members as individuals and which it was in their interest for him to follow up, was not a sufficient departure from good industrial relations practice to take his conduct outside the scope of "trade union activities" for the purpose of section 152.