Archive for the ‘Whistleblowing’ Category
By Olivia - Thursday, March 11th, 2010
We’re always pleased to see an employment lawyer receive the Times accolade of ‘Lawyer Of The Week’. The honour this week goes to Jessica Learmond-Criqui who acted for Stephanie Booth (stepmother of Cherie) who brought a successful claim for unfair dismissal after losing her job for whistleblowing (aside note - if you are dismissed because of ‘blowing the whistle’ there is no cap on compensation and dismissal is automatically unfair).
Well done to Jessica.
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By Olivia - Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Blogs on whistleblowing are like buses, none for a while then recently one follows the other !
Mrs Stephanie Booth (Cherie Blair’s stepmother) is claiming unfair dismissal on the grounds she was dismissed for identifying failings and health and safety concerns with her employers, Cool UK. Cook UK is a children’s charity which provides alternative education for young people. She blew the whistle over staff, allegedly, purchasing adult material at the Scheme’s base.
In a curious twist the Lancashire Telegraph reported yesterday that on the night before the Tribunal hearing, property belonging to the charity was badly damaged in a fire. The cause is believed to be accidental and any link between the fire and the tribunal has been ruled out.
No guesses as to who has been advising Mrs Booth ? Employment lawyers in the family can be as useful as ex PM’s. No comments please!
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By Olivia - Monday, January 18th, 2010
Last year Employment Tribunals received over 1,700 claims under the Public Interest Disclosure Act. Whilst the Tribunal makes a judgment based on the facts they do not make an assessment or take any action on the issue of the underlying allegations. These can relate, for example, to fraud, health and safety issues or financial irregularities to name but a few. The Government launched consultation on whether there was a practical process whereby allegations giving rise to whistleblowing claims could be forwarded by Tribunals to the appropriate regulator for their review. Consultation closed on 2 October 2009 and the government have just published the responses and their intentions going forwards.
The proposed process is to allow Tribunals to send copies of the ET1 (or extracts) directly to the relevant regulator. This adds no additional burden or delay to Claimants in dealing with their Tribunal claim. It is proposed that there will be an option of confidentiality for the Claimant and they can go directly to the regulator if they prefer. The ET1 will direct Claimants to PIDA guidance available on BusinessLink and Direct gov websites.
More detail as to the proposals can be found in the attached document. It is intended that legislation to implement the changes will come into effect from April 2010 subject to parliamentary approval.
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By Sarah - Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
An 18 year old worker at a former call centre has blown the whistle on conditions at the Swine Flu call centre stating that staff were untrained and high on drugs/alcohol when giving a diagnosis. Staff were apparently on £6.00 an hour with no medical background and received three hours of training before going live on the phones.
Health officials say that as few as 1 in 5 people who were given Tamiflu after ringing the helpline may have actually had swine flu. Some call centre staff were as young as 16 and there was no doctor on site to give advice. Supervision was said to be lapse too with staff eating pizzas and playing board games whilst taking calls according to the Daily Mail story.
Although whistleblowing to the press is an option it is not the norm for the employment law meaning of whistleblowing. Employment law protects whistleblowers providing they make a protected disclosure. The disclosure must relate to a specific category and must be to a prescribed person. The relevant sections can be found at s43F onwards of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
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By Nicky - Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
A senior nurse (Ms Fecitt) raised concerns with her employer, NHS Manchester, over a fellow nursing colleague whom she believed had misrepresented his qualifications and should not have been treating adult patients.
The Trust swept her concerns under the carpet and she was subsequently subjected to a torrent victimisation and bullying including doors being slammed in her face and colleagues avoiding her. As a result she suffered panic attacks, palpitations, insomnia and stress.
Ms Fecitt relaid to the Tribunal how she had received a threatening telephone call telling her to drop the case or her house would be burnt down. Interestingly Ms Fecitt’s telephone number is ex-directory, however, is available on the staff directory.
The Tribunal hearing is expected to last a couple of weeks, so watch this space…
Click here for more details.
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By Olivia - Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Croydon Employment Tribunal are hearing day 2 of a fairly high profile whistleblowing case. Mr Ramon Niekrash alleges that he repeatedly raised concerns about cost cutting and the subsequent ability of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust to provide a safe service to patients. The consultant urologist claims that his warnings were ignored and he was victimised as a result of raising concerns.
This will be an interesting case to follow as whistleblowing cases are often settled before reaching Tribunal in the interests of avoiding negative publicity. They are always a pull to the media, particularly if they involve government bodies or the NHS.
As a whistlestop guide to the legislation (see what I did there?) ….
The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 came into force in July 1999. This introduced specific rights for those who disclose information about alleged wrongdoing, including the right not to suffer detriment in employment and the right not to be unfairly dismissed for making a disclosure. Any such dismissal will be automatically unfair and there is no qualifying period of employment. In order for the protection afforded by the Act to apply there is a fairly rigorous test as to what amount to a qualifying disclosure and when and to whom such a disclosure can be made.
The hearing is due to last 9 days yet so it will be a while before we report back on the decision reached……
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By Sarah - Thursday, July 16th, 2009
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (DBIS) have set out plans which if passed will mean that Employment Tribunals will have more of a policing role in my view. In whistleblowing cases, the Tribunals will be asked to report the Whistleblowing incident to the appropriate regulatory body such as the Serious Fraud Office depending on the allegation.
Apparently, the measure is designed to make it easier for the regulators to access whistleblowing claims and decide whether further action is necessary. The Claim form would be copied to the regulator.
Consultation has been launched on the subject and closes on 2nd October 2009. You can have your say through the consultation process.
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By Olivia - Monday, July 6th, 2009
Not many cases of employees blowing the whistle have been reported recently so it’s good to dust this one down, shake it off and re-introduce it to the blog today.
One of the burning issues to date has been what do Tribunals do with information they have in front of them in relation to whistle-blowing cases? At the moment, whilst whistleblowers themselves can disclose to the appropriate regulator, there is no process for Employment Tribunals to pass information to regulators about claims under the Public interest Disclosure Act.
This may change as the Government have opened consultation on this point. Their aim is to create a clear process for keeping regulators informed but, at the same time, maintaining the confidentiality of unsubstantiated allegations.
Consultation is for three months so watch this space in September for the outcome.
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By Sarah - Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
The British Standards Institute (BSI) has produced a Whistleblowing Code of Practice. It sets out the good practice arrangements for the introduction, operation and review of whilstleblowing provisions.
In our experience the whistleblowing provisions are not as well used as other employment legislation. However, in a climate where business practices are under the ethical spotlight we may see it being used more and more.
In order to receive a free copy of the Code of Practice you need to register your details with the BSI.
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By Philip - Thursday, December 14th, 2006
The Court of Appeal has handed down its decision concerning what amounts to a disclosure under the Whistleblowing legislation. The employee was a teacher who resigned after he received a formal warning from the School for hacking into the computer to expose a flaw in the security system, having obatined permission to do so in advance. The employee claimed he had suffered a detriment as a result of disclosing the employer’s breach in its data protection obligations. The Court of Appeal held “disclosure” under s43B of the ERA should be given its common meaning. This limits disclosure to the utterance of the words to the employer about the breach of their obligation but does not extend to the surrounding circumstances. The employee is seeking to appeal the decision to the House of Lords. Read Download bolton_school_v_evans.htm here.
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