Whistleblowing Solicitors

There are laws and rules in place to ensure the safety of workers and visitors.

There are rules in place for employers and employees that can have civil or criminal consequences.

Sometimes either employees will break those rules, and at other times it may be employers.

By way of example, an employee may steal or cause criminal damage, or defraud the company, or may ignore health and safety regulations. Alternatively an employer may be guilty of wrongdoing such as fraudulent contracts, health and safety breaches, discriminatory practices or tax evasion amongst other things

What is whistleblowing?

If you find yourself in a situation where you think someone is doing something wrong at work, you would feel morally obliged to report it to stop a dangerous, harmful or illegal practice from affecting you or others.

When you make such a report to your manager or the appropriate governing body, this is known as whistleblowing at work.

At OH Parsons, our highly qualified employment law solicitors can advise you if you intend to, or have in fact blown the whistle.

Our employment law solicitors can provide you with expert legal advice and assist you in enforcing your rights and help protect you from any adverse consequences for having blown the whistle.

Our whistleblowing solicitors can help you identify if your blowing the whistle is a ‘qualifying disclosure’. In order to whistleblow you need to:

Give information which you believe shows

• • • An offence has or is likely to be committed
    • Someone has or is likely to fail to comply with a legal obligation
    • A miscarriage of justice has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur
    • The health and safety of any person has or is likely to be endangered
    • The environment has or is likely to be endangered
    • That information tending to show any matter relating to the above has been or is likely to be deliberately concealed.

If you think you may have grounds to blow the whistle or have blown the whistle speak to our employment law solicitors and seek our expert legal advice from our whistleblowing solicitors.

Who should you tell?

In order to qualify a disclosure has to be made to the ‘relevant person. This means you must tell either your manager or anyone your employer has nominated as the correct person to make a protected disclosure to.

Not telling the correct person can mean you are not protected by law from the consequences of any such whistleblowing.

If you have made such disclosure or intend to make it, speak to our expert employment law solicitors who can advise you.

What protections do you have?

After speaking to our whistleblowing solicitors and receiving expert legal advice, you will be in a position to understand whether your proposed disclosure is an act of whistleblowing.

If it is, the law protects you from certain actions by your employer.

If you have done a protected act and done an act of whistleblowing, your employer cannot treat you badly because of it. This is known as protection from detriment.

If you believe your employer is or is likely to subject you to a detriment then speak to our whistleblowing solicitors for expert legal advice on what to do. The following could be acts of detriment:

• • • Changing your role
    • Restricting your duties
    • Demotion
    • Harassment and bullying
    • Hostile treatment
    • Withholding of benefits and bonus
    • Pressure to resign
    • Refused overtime
    • Any other act that leaves you worse off than before

The law also stops the employer from being able to dismiss you if you have whistleblown and this dismissal would be one knows as an automatic unfair dismissal. You should urgently seek expert legal advice as there are strict time limits in which to take action. Our employment law solicitors can help you identify the correct legal time limits and help explain to you what you can expect in the process.

Next Steps?

If you believe you have whistleblown or are going to, and maybe subjected to detriments, or have been subjected to detriments or been dismissed, speak to our employment law solicitors and whistleblowing solicitors for expert legal advice.

You will normally have to take action within 3 months (so 3 months less one day) from the date you were subjected to a detriment or from the date you were dismissed.

If you do not take action within 3 months of the act then you may be out of time to challenge the behaviour and seek damages. It is imperative that if you have suffered what you believe is a detriment or dismissal because of whistleblowing you take action within the time limit.

Contact our employment law solicitors as soon as possible for expert legal advice.