Peter Breakey heralds a small but welcome extension to the scope of protection for whistleblowers
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A claimant’s status as a worker vis à vis an agency they are employed under is irrelevant to a claim against a trust that the worker provides services for.
The rules designed to protect whistleblowers have repeatedly proved to be inadequate. A recent decision in the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), which will apply to many NHS agency workers, provides a small but welcome extension of their scope. In McTigue v University Hospital Bristol NHS Foundation Trust UKEAT/0354/15/JOJ, Ms McTigue (the claimant) was a nurse employed by an agency (the agency) which provided services to the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (the trust). From 2011, she had been working with victims of sexual assaults. In 2013 she was removed from this work. She argued that her removal from this work was a detriment which she had suffered as a result of a protected disclosure she had made to the trust. It was therefore a breach of her right under s 47B of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996).
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