With the government recently announcing that they will review the whistleblowing framework, whistleblowing is increasingly becoming a buzzword in the employment industry. What is it and what does it mean for you?

This article will establish what whistleblowing is, providing tailored information for employers, employees, and solicitors.

What is whistleblowing?

“Whistleblowing” is when an employee raises concerns and seek advice because they believe there is wrongdoing in their workplace. This is usually starts raising concerns about danger or illegality that affects others.

This could be a variety of issues, including financial malpractice, criminal offences, a danger risk, unfair dismissal, unfair treatment, risks to health and safety, failure to comply with a legal obligation, or an environmental damage.

If an employee decides to blow the whistle on an organisation, they have legal protection, and they cannot be victimised by their employer.

Whistleblowers are protected for public interest, to encourage people to speak out if they find malpractice in their workplace.

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 is a key piece of legislation that protects these individuals.

What does whistleblowing mean for employers?

Whistleblowing doesn’t need to be viewed negatively by employers, internal whistle blowing can be really helpful and increase employee well-being.

To encourage internal whistleblowing, you should encourage a speak up culture. This gives you a great opportunity to address any workplace misconduct.

Implementing an effective whistleblowing policy is key to ensuring that workers can voice their concerns internally.

A good whistleblowing policy can help to reduce the risk of legal liability by demonstrating that the business cares about dealing with wrongdoing concern effectively and has taken clear steps to prevent victimisation against whistleblowers.

An effective whistleblowing policy will encourage employees to speak up, enable anonymous reporting and communicate the benefits to workers of blowing the whistle. The investigation process should also be transparent.

A whistleblowing employee is protected from victimisation by their employer, but this does not mean that your employee is protected from dismissal for misconduct that is separate to the whistleblowing.

This was seen in the case of Mr M B Hassen v Group Employment Services, where the claimant and worker was dismissed not long after they blew the whistle. The tribunal acknowledged that this was merely a coincidence. The reasons for dismissal were completely separate to the whistleblowing.

What does whistleblowing mean for employees?

If you believe that there is malpractice or wrongdoing in a workplace, then you can blow the whistle on the behaviour. You could be protected from losing your job.

To be protected as a whistleblower you need to make a ‘qualifying disclosure’ when disclosing information about malpractice. There are some disclosures that can’t be qualifying disclosures but they can be a protected disclosure. If you break the law when making a disclosure, or the information that you are disclosing is protected under legal professional privilege, you will not be protected.

For your disclosure to be protected by the law you should make it to the right person, in the right way.

This means making the disclosure in good faith, with the reasonable belief that the information disclosed is substantially true, and you are making the disclosure to the right person. You should check your employment contract to see if your employer has set out a process for whistleblowing.

Your disclosure must also be in the public interest; but this isn’t as high of a threshold as it sounds. In the case of Mr A Babb v Orange Twist Ltd, the claimant made a complaint that affected himself and a group of staff in the small pub where he worked.

The tribunal recognised that although this group of people affected were relatively small in certain circumstances, it was large enough to amount to a section of the public, as this was beyond merely his own private interest.

Tips for Employment Solicitors

Bhayani HR & Employment Law had the privilege of being visited by Kevin McNerney, where he spoke to us about whistleblowing, employment rights and the importance of written advocacy.

Kevin discussed grounds of complaint forms and suggested that these are the most important part of your whistleblowing claims.

Kevin argued that written advocacy is crucial to ensuring that your particular case always gets the best opportunity possible. A grounds of complaint submission should be well written, and spending time on this is key to a successful case.

What is the future of whistleblowing?

The government have announced that they will be reviewing the whistleblowing framework in the UK. The law on whistleblowing (the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998) is 25 years old and needs updating in order to keep up with the modern workforce.

For advice or for a free assessment contact us today