Q&A – legal protections for whistleblowers

Q: What legal protections do whistleblowers have?

A: Assuming their disclosure constitutes a protected disclosure, whistleblowers have the right not to be subjected to any detriment on the ground that they’ve made a protected disclosure, even if it turns out not to be true. Examples of detrimental treatment include denial of training, failure to promote, bullying or harassment and imposing disciplinary sanctions. In addition, employees will be regarded as automatically unfairly dismissed if the reason, or principal reason, for their dismissal is that they’ve made a protected disclosure, regardless of their length of employment.

HR –  Ask Me Anything

Q&A –  Reclaiming training costs with no agreement

Q: If we don’t have a signed training costs agreement in place and the employee resigns shortly after completing the training, can we still recover all or any of the course fees?

A. In the absence of a signed training costs agreement , unless there’s a clause in the employee’s employment contract which is specific enough to cover the repayment of training course fees, you can’t recover those fees. Even with a clause, to make a wage deduction what must appear in writing is not only provision for the employee to repay the fees, but also the amount owed to be deducted from their wages.

Were you to make an unauthorised deduction from the employee’s final salary payment, they would be able to issue a tribunal claim for an unlawful deduction from wages. 

They could also seek compensation for any financial loss they’ve suffered, such as bank charges, which is attributable to the unlawful deduction.