Health and safety: Safety representative intended to embarrass employer

Where a safety representative claims that he or she was subjected to a detriment for performing functions as an acknowledged health and safety representative, it is no defence for the employer to argue that the representative intended to embarrass the company in front of the external safety authorities or performed those functions in an unreasonable way unacceptable to the employer, holds the EAT in Shillito v Van Leer (UK) Ltd [1997] IRLR 495. On the facts of this case, however, it was clear that the representative's sole motive was to embarrass the employer rather than to perform his acknowledged health and safety functions, so his complaint that he had suffered a detriment failed.