Employment Law Advice Birmingham Law Solicitors Birmingham

Workers are protected if they make disclosures which are in the public interest; The Public Interest Disclosure Act gives workers protection from victimisation by employers.

Therefore, it is unlawful for an employer to dismiss or subject an employee to any detriment if the reason for this is because that employee has made a protected disclosure.

To be protected under the Act the disclosure must fall under one of the following categories and the worker has a reasonable belief that one of these has or is likely to occur:

a criminal offence;

failure to comply with a legal obligation;

a miscarriage of justice;

the health and safety of any individual is endangered;

the environment is being damaged;

information relating to any of the above areas is being deliberately concealed.

For disclosure to be protected a worker must do so to the correct person in the correct way:

disclosure must be in good faith to an employer or through procedures to which the employer has authorised;

complain to the person who is responsible for that area of concern e.g. health and safety representative.

For the disclosure to the correct person to be protected, the following must be fulfilled:

make the disclosure in good faith;

reasonably believe that the information is substantially true;

reasonably believe that he/she is disclosing information to the correct person.

In certain circumstances disclosure can also be made to:

a legal advisor;

a government minister (if a public sector employee);

a professional standards body or in extreme cases, the media.

If a worker is unsure then it is best to seek legal advice as this is protected.

If an employee wants to complain about malpractice at work, they should consult the employer's grievance procedure or speak to a health and safety representative or union representative.

If an employee is sacked for complaining about malpractice at work, they can make a claim for unfair dismissal. A year's service is not required.

If an employee is covered by whistleblowing protections and has been victimised (e.g. been denied training opportunities, demoted, denied promotion), then a claim can be made to the employment tribunal for suffering a detriment.