There have been horrendous stories in the press of celebrities being involved in child abuse,
and the weak and vulnerable not being properly protected or cared for.
These offences have often gone on for years without anything being done and people say,
Someone must have known what was happening, why didn't they do anything?
All too often the answer has been that they didn't think anyone would listen, or they
were afraid they'd be bullied by colleagues or they'd lose their jobs, and sadly, these things do happen.
But there is protection for whistleblowers who report wrongdoings correctly,
so this is what you need to know about... whistleblowing at work.
Perhaps the first thing to say is that whistleblowing isn't about personal grievances.
This is Jerry, he feels he's been unfairly treated in his pay review,
well that wouldn't be a whistleblowing issue in itself as
Jerry's pay review isn't in the public interest and he'd need to
raise his concerns in another way, probably through a grievance procedure.
Whistleblowing is about encouraging disclosures which are made in the public interest, and
about protecting the people who blow the whistle in good faith, but in order for
someone to be protected under the legislation, the Public Interest Disclosure Act,
the disclosure must meet certain conditions and criteria. Let's have a look at some of them.
Firstly, there are four types of wrongdoing that a worker can report.
These are issues concerning: health and safety, damage to the environment, criminal offences and miscarriages
of justice, and companies not obeying the law - like not having the right insurance,
or if someone is trying to cover any of these up.
So what should you do if you become aware of a wrongdoing in any of these areas?
Employers are encouraged to have whistleblowing procedures in place and that's where you should
check first for the correct procedure to follow. Another of the criteria is that whistleblowing
disclosures must be made to the right person. Jack's just seen a health and safety issues
and wants to report it. Generally speaking he'd make his disclosure to his line manager,
the HR department, or through a whistleblowing hotline, as long as he felt comfortable doing so.
But Sarah thinks the director of the bank
where she works is involved in money laundering. Normally she'd report money laundering suspicions
to the Money Laundering Reporting Officer at the bank, but she suspects he might also
be involved, so she made her disclosure externally to a prescribed body.
Prescribed bodies and people are there so you can blow the whistle if you think your
employer will try to cover up your disclosure, treat you unfairly, or you have already told them,
and they haven't done anything about it.
So, a worker is eligible for protection if their disclosure is in the public interest,
they honestly think what they're reporting is true, and they make their disclosure to the right person.
But what happens if you feel you've been treated unfairly
because you blew the whistle. This is what happened to Helen.
She believed someone in the organisation she works for was selling people's personal data.
So Helen made a disclosure to her line manager.
A few weeks later she felt she was being bullied by her colleagues as a result of her whistleblowing.
Being treated unfairly in this way is called 'suffering detriment'.
If someone suffers detriment as a result of whistleblowing, for example by being harassed,
passed over for promotion or even dismissed, they can bring a claim for compensation through
an employment or industrial tribunal. If the tribunal decides in their favour,
it can order paid compensation, or in the case of a dismissal,
that the person gets their job back. If you think this is happening to you,
it's a good idea to make sure that the unfair treatment is as result of the whistleblowing and not something else.
Keep a record of when and how you were unfairly treated in case you need it as evidence.
If appropriate, contact your human resources department
and ask for their advice, and you could also consider getting advice from an external employment lawyer.
The term whistleblowing comes from referees pointing out
that there's been a foul or wrongdoing in a game. But instead of one person being
responsible for reporting everything, whistleblowing at work is about all
the workers feeling that they can report wrongdoings safely and by doing so make things better,
and safer for everyone.