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“Whistleblowing”
 High profile cases in the media have highlighted ‘whistleblowing’. Since the enactment of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 more than £10 million a year has been paid to workers sacked or victimised for 'blowing the whistle'.
What is it? It can include issues such as giving information,
internally to the employer and in certain circumstances externally,
about illegal and underhand practices and raising concerns about
misconduct within an organisation or within another independent
structure associated with it.
It applies to workers who follow specific procedures laid down in the legislation in disclosing specified categories of malpractice including:
- a criminal offence
- a failure to comply with a legal obligation
- a miscarriage of justice
- the endangering of an individual's health and safety
- damage to the environment
Dismissing whistleblowers who are protected by the legislation will be automatically unfair, resulting in an entitlement to complain to an Employment Tribunal. There is no qualifying period for protection for workers and no upper limit of the level of compensation that Tribunals may award for dismissal of whistleblowers.
‘Workers’ includes not only employees but also contractors providing services, most agency workers, home workers and trainees on vocational and work experience schemes.
The legislation covers:
- internal disclosures to the employer;
- disclosures to prescribed persons such as regulatory bodies;
- wider disclosures for example to the police, the media or MPs.
If you would like to discuss a public interest disclosure issue in confidence, whether you are an employer or an employee, please contact us.
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