Whistleblowers are people or persons that have acted to safeguard practices or standards, standing up for something they believe to be morally right. As a direct result they will have often been treated unfairly or adversely.
Whistleblowing is often a spontaneous action/reaction to a workplace situation. At Tribunal Consult we have trained experienced advisors that can advise as to the legality of your claim.
Top Tips for those considering blowing the whistle:
- Whistleblowers need to stick to the facts and document them fully.
- Employers can after a whistleblowing incident contrive an E-mail or other written communication expressing concern about a matter that has nothing to do with the whistleblowing event. The gist of which is to ask the whistleblower to come to the managers office for a meeting. Unless the whistleblower then does something specifically after the meeting, the employer (manager/supervisor) can begin to "sow the seeds" that can successfully lead to the whistleblower's termination of employment!
- After an occurrence of employee whistleblowing, some employers will create some workplace situation, seemingly not related to any matter that the employee blew-the-whistle on, for the purpose of creating a circumstance that can be used for firing the employee or imposing other disciplinary action
- It is a mistake to assume that fellow employees where you work or worked will testify in your behalf during any whistleblower litigation or action. If you are planning on making a stand, test the water first to ascertain whether there is a body of support for your action.
- Any adversity which may occur from whistleblowing should only be a finite event in one's life, not something that makes the whistleblower a "victim" for the rest of their life.
- Whistleblowers often, in the face of retaliation at work, quit their job; which can be a mistake.
- If one or more of your fellow co-workers already know about the "wrongdoing" in the workplace, but urge or persuade you to be the one to blow-the-whistle, suggest that a jointly action should take place instead.
- If your employer tells you they are going to correct a situation that you have blown the whistle on, ask: "By what date?" If the correction date is far away, or they are noncommittal be suspicious.
- Consider when to blow-the-whistle, it can be advisable to do so in writing rather than just verbal form. Making sure that any correspondence is dated and its delivery recorded.
- A whistleblower's memory of an event or facts relating to past occurrences, can become faded over time, an accurate tool to avoid such distortions is a diary to document key events.
Some of the other claims we can advise on are:
Unfair Dismissal
Wrongful Dismissal
Sex Discrimination
Constructive dismissal
Race Discrimination
Redundancy Payment
Disability Discrimination
Bullying
