The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA) – often referred to as the ‘Whistleblowing’ Act – came into force in July 1999. PIDA inserted new sections into the Employment Rights Act 1996 which give workers legal protection when disclosing information relating to crimes, breaches of a legal obligation, miscarriages of justice, dangers to health and safety or the environment and to the concealing of evidence relating to any of these. In particular, PIDA makes it automatically unfair dismissal to dismiss an employee for making a ‘protected disclosure’, in good faith, to someone to whom they are entitled to make it, and it is unlawful to penalise them for doing so.
In Roberts v Valley Rose Ltd. (t/a Fernbank Nursing Home) , Miss Roberts, a nurse in a care home for the elderly, claimed that she was subject to a detriment and later unfairly dismissed for making a number of qualifying disclosures about practices at Fernbank Nursing Home, including one of alleged poor treatment of a resident. Miss Roberts had worked for the nursing home for less than one year so was unable to bring a claim of ordinary unfair dismissal.
During Miss Roberts’ time working at the nursing home there had been 20 or so complaints about her, including one that she had made the resident concerned in the allegation of poor treatment write an account of her mistreatment at the hands of another member of staff.
The Employment Tribunal (ET) found that Miss Roberts was fairly dismissed for a ‘catalogue of misconduct’ and was neither dismissed nor subjected to a detriment because of her whistleblowing. The ET also found that none of the disclosures relating to the poor treatment of the resident was made in good faith. In its view, these were ‘malicious acts by the claimant to further her vindictive campaign…’ against one of her colleagues.
Miss Roberts submitted an appeal on the ground that the allegation of bad faith was not put to her sufficiently in advance for her to refute the claim. The Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed her appeal. In its view, the allegation had been made in advance of the ET hearing and there was therefore an opportunity for her to defend the claim that she had made false allegations in order to cause trouble for another member of staff and that she had an ulterior motive for making the disclosure.
It is in the interest of all employers to make sure that employees are confident that they can raise concerns internally and without suffering any detriment. Whistleblowing policies should be tailor-made to suit the individual organisation.
In Roberts v Valley Rose Ltd. (t/a Fernbank Nursing Home) , Miss Roberts, a nurse in a care home for the elderly, claimed that she was subject to a detriment and later unfairly dismissed for making a number of qualifying disclosures about practices at Fernbank Nursing Home, including one of alleged poor treatment of a resident. Miss Roberts had worked for the nursing home for less than one year so was unable to bring a claim of ordinary unfair dismissal.
During Miss Roberts’ time working at the nursing home there had been 20 or so complaints about her, including one that she had made the resident concerned in the allegation of poor treatment write an account of her mistreatment at the hands of another member of staff.
The Employment Tribunal (ET) found that Miss Roberts was fairly dismissed for a ‘catalogue of misconduct’ and was neither dismissed nor subjected to a detriment because of her whistleblowing. The ET also found that none of the disclosures relating to the poor treatment of the resident was made in good faith. In its view, these were ‘malicious acts by the claimant to further her vindictive campaign…’ against one of her colleagues.
Miss Roberts submitted an appeal on the ground that the allegation of bad faith was not put to her sufficiently in advance for her to refute the claim. The Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed her appeal. In its view, the allegation had been made in advance of the ET hearing and there was therefore an opportunity for her to defend the claim that she had made false allegations in order to cause trouble for another member of staff and that she had an ulterior motive for making the disclosure.
It is in the interest of all employers to make sure that employees are confident that they can raise concerns internally and without suffering any detriment. Whistleblowing policies should be tailor-made to suit the individual organisation.
