Delivery firm boss was unfairly sacked after warning his company's e-bike batteries could spontaneously burst into flames

A delivery firm manager was unfairly sacked after he warned the company five times that their e-bike batteries posed a 'serious risk to life'.

Sebastien Potts warned chief executive of Swedish delivery firm Urb-it, Kevin Kviblad,in 2022 that there was a high risk of fire in the hubs across London where the e-bikes were stored due to the charging process for the lithium batteries.

Mr Potts told an employment tribunal that his concerns were ignored and Urb-it's chief executive even quipped that Mr Potts would be the only executive to get into 'trouble' if there was a battery fire because there is no extradition treaty between Sweden and Britain.

That comment made Mr Potts resign from his role at the company because he feared that he would be prosecuted.

The judge at the employment tribunal in central London ruled that Mr Potts was effectively fired for whistleblowing and is now eligible for compensation from the company - which is now in voluntary liquidation.

One of Urb-it's delivery e-bikes which were being stored in hubs across London and left to charge overnight

He said that he was especially concerned about the hub on Centaur Street in Waterloo and said that the 'arches are long,relatively narrow and have one entrance'. Mr Potts also said that the lithium batteries required 'regular charging often overnight'.

The tribunal judge,Mark Emery,said that Mr Potts's concerns and warning had been prompted by a fire caused by lithium batteries at a nearby railway arch in 2022.

Mr Potts had suggested installing fire-safe boxes for the dangerous batteries but his bosses in Sweden rejected the idea,citing 'funding constraints'. 

In response,Mr Potts told his bosses that he and the chief executive,Mr Kviblad,'may be at risk of criminal prosecution for manslaughter as company directors'.

He told the tribunal that Mr Kviblad said Mr Potts would be the only one at risk of prosecution because the others 'were Swedish citizens living in Sweden' - which was claimed at the hearing to have been a joke.

However,Mr 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'.

In his ruling,the judge concluded that Mr Potts resigned because 'he raised several whistleblowing complaints',and that 'his manager did not appear to take the issue seriously,instead saying it would be [Mr Potts] who would be liable'.

The judge added that Mr Potts was 'entitled to treat these acts as a repudiatory breach of contract,made because he had raised whistleblowing allegations'.

As a result,Urb-it had 'automatically constructively dismissed' Mr Potts because of his whistleblowing.

Compensation will be decided at a later date.

TFLSweden