Whistleblowing – is it worth it?
Of course raising concerns about public safety or illegal behaviour by your employer or colleagues is very important but it must be done in the correct way to avoid workers being treated unfairly, being bullied or even dismissed.
The legal definition of whistleblowing is making a public interest disclosure and examples are where public safety is at risk because an organisation is cutting corners such as short staffing in hospitals or intimidating behaviour by care workers to residents in a care home. Often staff are afraid to report such problems for fear of being bullied by managers and singled out by colleagues.
Whistleblowing – what is in the public interest?
Only certain types of information can be qualifying disclosures for whistleblowing and must be in the public interest:
- Criminal offences such as fraud, for example, an organisation fraudulently applies for a grant from a public body.
- Failure to comply with a legal obligation such as a breach of contract, negligence or nuisance, for example, a company has discharged dangerous chemicals into the environment.
- That a miscarriage of justice has occurred or is likely to occur for example a person is charged with a criminal offence when it is known that they did not commit it.
- That the Health and Safety of any individual is endangered for example hospital patients, train passengers, workers including the person making the disclosure.
Whistleblowing – the proper procedure
Qualifying disclosures must be made to the correct people and in the correct way.
Many employers have whistle-blowing procedures which explain how disclosures should be made such as to a manager within the workplace when a worker has a reasonable belief about malpractice for example to the Health and Safety manager, trade union or health and safety representative if workers are asked to work in an unsafe way.
Disclosures may be made to external organisations such as regulators like the Care Quality Commission if care home workers are concerned about malpractice of managers or colleagues, the Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts for hospital disclosures, the Information Commissioner if an organisation is miss-handling personal data, the Health and Safety Executive if employers or contractors are breaching health and safety regulations. There are many more external organisations who oversee different areas of business and public sector organisations.
Whistleblowing – should I contact the media or police
Disclosures to the media and police will only be protected disclosures if they are reasonable such as the disclosure is of serious misconduct and is not made for personal gain. For a disclosure to be made to the police or the media without having done so internally first or by disclosure to a prescribed external organisation the disclosure must be of an exceptionally serious nature to be a protected disclosure.
Whistleblowing – how Paul Doran Law can help?
We are specialist employment lawyers and have experience of assisting employees who have suffered detriment and dismissal because they made public interest disclosures. We can advise if there is a public interest disclosure and to who the disclosure should be made.
If a worker is dismissed for whistle-blowing they can claim automatically unfair dismissal with compensation such as a basic award which is calculated the same way as a redundancy payment, loss of earnings and compensation for injury to feelings. If you have not been dismissed but have suffered some other detriment such as not being promoted or being given a poor reference after leaving for a new job compensation can be claimed for financial losses and injury to feelings.
Paul Doran Law have had successful claims for all types of employment law claims including whistleblowing, unfair dismissal, discrimination and equal pay. Click here for some tips if you are considering blowing the whistle about any issues at work.
What are the costs of pursing a claim?
We provide a free assessment of your case and discuss the options for fees including if a case is suitable for no win, no fee under a Damages Based Agreement and other funding options.
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