Woman wins landmark ruling for whistleblowers

A woman from Bradford has won an important victory for whistleblowers after a two-year battle with a local government authority.

Naz Shah, 37, took Local Government Yorkshire and Humber to an employment tribunal for detriment damages and unfair dismissal after she blew the whistle in order to protect tax payers’ money. She persevered with her claim, despite her union refusing to back her because of the ‘slim’ chance of success.

The mum of two had worked as a commissioning manager for NHS Bradford and Airdale and was seconded for 23 months to be the director of a national pilot, Get Connected. The programme was being hosted by Local Government Yorkshire and Humber and was intended to encourage more Muslim women to take on leadership roles.

Two weeks into the job, Naz Shah became suspicious. She had concerns over the programme’s funding and the lack of paper trails for invoices, bids and claims.

She eventually resigned from her post and took redundancy from the NHS over the stress caused by whistleblowing.

To ‘blow the whistle’ in employment law terms means to raise concerns about an employer’s wrongdoing to that employer by making a ‘disclosure’. Under employment law, an employee cannot suffer from detriment because they have made a disclosure, or be dismissed. If either of these things happens to the employee, they will have a claim in an employment tribunal.

Whistleblowing also covers situations where an employee makes a disclosure about wrongdoing to an external body, such as the employer's regulatory authority.

Employees who are considering blowing the whistle may want to obtain legal advice before they do so, as certain criteria have to be met for their disclosure to be protected under employment law.

Naz Shah won her claim for detrimental damages at the employment tribunal. This means that she was found to have suffered from detriment because of her disclosure and that she is protected by employment law, even though she was on secondment.

However, her claim for unfair dismissal did not succeed. The employment tribunal found that because she was not employed by Local Government Yorkshire and Humber, they could not have dismissed her. In order to claim for unfair dismissal, a person must be an employee of the defendant.

The employment tribunal said: “The claimant’s original motive and instincts were right: concern for the public purse and the frameworks in place to look after it.

“The Tribunal considered this case, unlike many cases brought under the whistleblowing provisions, to be a paradigm for their need.”

To find out more information about whistleblowing and the protection available under employment law, get in touch with Job Justice.