Whistle-blowing

Whistle-blowing law protects your employment rights if you make a genuine disclosure about a wrongdoing within the workplace. This includes protecting you from unfair dismissal and selection for redundancy as a result of the disclosure.

To be protected as a whistle-blower, you need to make a disclosure about a wrongdoing in the workplace. This could be a disclosure about:

• criminal offences
• failure to comply with a legal obligation
• miscarriages of justice
• threats to an individual's health and safety
• damage to the environment
• a deliberate attempt to cover up any of the above

For your disclosure to be protected by the law, you need make it to the right person and in the right way. If your employer has set out a process for whistle-blowing, it should be followed. The disclosure should be made in good faith, and you should reasonably believe that the information is substantially true and that you have made the disclosure to the right person. If you are considering making a disclosure about a wrongdoing at work, we can advise you.

If you are dismissed for complaining about wrongdoings at work, you can make a claim for unfair dismissal, even if you don't have one year's service. If you have suffered unfair treatment, because of whistle-blowing, such not being promoted, you may be able to make a claim for victimisation.