It’s important that workers can report illegal acts and other serious wrongdoing committed by their employer without fearing repercussions. As such, the Public Interest Disclosure Act gives these individuals – commonly referred to as ‘whistleblowers’ – protection against being victimised, disciplined, dismissed or otherwise treated unfairly for speaking out about malpractice (otherwise referred to as making a ‘protected disclosure’).

In the context of COVID-19, there are two main types of protected disclosure that a worker could conceivably make: allegations of furlough fraud and, perhaps most commonly, concerns about the safety of the working environment. According to one survey, 35% of employees who were back in the workplace in September 2020 were concerned about COVID-19 transmission while doing their job. Indeed, reports surfaced earlier this year of employees being forced to go back into workplaces that weren’t COVID-compliant, with 4,000 workers having blown the whistle to the HSE between 6 and 14 January 2021 alone.

If an employee is disciplined, dismissed or feels forced to resign in this scenario, they may have grounds to bring a whistleblowing claim. What’s more, while some disclosures will be made for genuine reasons, others may seek to take advantage of this legal recourse, either by using it as leverage not to attend work or going so far as to bring a claim themselves.

For employers, whistleblowing is much more complex and riskier your average claim. For a start, whistleblowing is considered to be an ‘automatically unfair’ reason for dismissal, meaning that if a worker’s disclosure was the main reason they were dismissed, there is no justification or defence available to the employer. Not only does this give the employee strong footing for a claim, but as the maximum compensation awarded in automatic unfair dismissal cases is uncapped, this further increases the temptation for employees to bring these types of claims, especially at a time when many are at risk of losing their jobs.

Increasing the threat further is the fact that unlike ordinary unfair dismissal, there is no qualifying period of service required to bring a claim – even workers who have been with you for a very short amount of time are eligible to do so. The usual barrier against litigious employers is therefore removed.

And it’s not just the compensation employers need to worry about. These more complex claims incur further financial outlay for employers in respect to the legal costs involved. In fact, our figures indicate that the average Employment Tribunal takes our Litigation Team approximately 87 hours to deal with. Factor in lawyers’ costs of around £200 per hour, and you’re looking at £17,400 in defence costs alone.