The Whistleblower - Wurkplace Blog

The Whistleblower

The Whistleblower is an employee who reports suspected wrongdoing in the workplace; its technical name is ‘making a disclosure in the public interest’.

 

Your employees can report if they believe:

  • Someone’s health and safety is in danger
  • There’s a risk of actual damage to the environment
  • It’s a criminal offence
  • The company isn’t obeying the law (e.g fraudulent behaviour/ incorrect insurance)
  • You are covering up wrongdoing

 

If somebody were to report a concern, they should follow this procedure:

  • Check for a Whistleblowing policy in the employee handbook or speak to HR if their company has a whistleblowing policy
  • If they feel they can approach their employer on the subject, they should contact them directly
  • If they can’t talk to their employer, they should contact a prescribed person or body

 

A person can only tell the prescribed person or body if they think that the employer:

  • Will cover it up
  • Would treat them unfairly if they complained
  • Haven’t resolved it and they’ve already told you

The whistleblower cannot be punished or dismissed for reporting a concern.  If they are in fact dismissed due to a genuine whistleblowing claim they can then claim for unfair dismissal and are protected by law.

 

The people protected by law are:

  • Employees
  • Agency Workers
  • People that are training with an employer (not necessarily employees
  • Self employed Workers, if supervised or working off site
  • School or sixth form college employee or agency worker
  • NHS workers under certain contractual agreements

Whistleblowing claims should be treated fairly at all times.  For advice and support on this take a look at our HR Services and book a free consultation.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Let Wurkplace Help You Today. Nothing Is Too Small or Too Big, We Have Experts Waiting to Help!Get Help Now!

let's talk!

If you need support, we have expert consultants waiting to help.