Whistleblowing/Public interest disclosures

New and updated

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Case round-up

  Annabel Mackay, managing associate at Addleshaw Goddard, detail the latest rulings.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Unfairly dismissed whistleblower wins £1.2 million compensation

  Compensation for a successful whistleblowing claim is unlimited, as the employer in this case found to its cost.

• Date:

  28 June 2010

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Whistleblowing: Opinion on discretionary redundancy scheme not protected disclosure

  In Goode v Marks & Spencer plc EAT/0442/09, the EAT held that an employment tribunal was right to find that an employee had not been dismissed because of having made a protected disclosure. There had been no qualifying or protected disclosure, but merely an opinion expressed about the employer's proposal for changes to a discretionary enhanced redundancy scheme.

• Date:

  14 June 2010

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Whistleblowing: Whistleblower protected where disclosure made in previous employment

  In BP plc v Elstone and another EAT/0141/09, the EAT held that a worker was entitled to bring a complaint under the whistleblowing provisions of the Employment Rights Act 1996 in respect of a detriment that he allegedly suffered in his current employment because of a protected disclosure that he had made while in previous employment.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Case round-up

  Richard Ryan, associate, Helen Ward, associate, and Tori O'Neil, trainee solicitor, Addleshaw Goddard, detail the latest rulings.

• Date:

  26 January 2010

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Whistleblowing: Disclosure of "information" requires statement of facts

  In Cavendish Munro Professional Risks Management Ltd v Geduld [2010] IRLR 38 EAT, the EAT held that the employment tribunal erred in deciding that a solicitor's letter amounted to a qualifying disclosure for the purposes of s.43B of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The letter merely stated the employee's position in an ongoing dispute, without alleging any facts.

• Date:

  23 January 2009

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Public interest disclosures: Whistleblowing provisions protect disclosure of third-party wrongdoing

  In Hibbins v Hesters Way Neighbourhood Project EAT/0275/08, the EAT held that a teacher's disclosure that a prospective student was a suspect in a criminal case was capable of being a protected disclosure for the purposes of the whistleblowing legislation.

• Date:

  30 June 2008

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Whistleblowing: Burden of proof

  In Kuzel v Roche Products Ltd [2008] IRLR 530, the Court of Appeal held that, having rejected the potentially fair reason for dismissal put forward by the employer, the tribunal was not obliged to accept the automatically unfair reason put forward by the employee. It was entitled to find that the employer had at least proved that this was not the reason for dismissal.

• Date:

  13 June 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Whistleblowing: Worker's 'reasonable belief' need not be factually correct

  In Babula v Waltham Forest College [2007] IRLR 346 the Court of Appeal held that to qualify for protection from detriment or dismissal for whistleblowing, a worker must hold a "reasonable belief" that the information disclosed tends to show that a criminal offence will be committed or that there will be non-compliance with a legal obligation.

• Date:

  1 December 2006

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Bolton School v Evans

  In Bolton School v Evans [2007] IRLR 140 CA, the Court of Appeal has held that protection against a detriment for making a protected disclosure does not extend to dismissal for conduct that is designed to demonstrate that the belief in the wrongdoing is reasonable.