The Court of Appeal is considering whether whistleblowing protections should be extended to external job applicants, after a charity submitted that the law is inconsistent with human rights legislation.
Currently, the scope of whistleblowing protections does not include external job applicants, except for people applying to the NHS under the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996). Other workers, such as people doing work experience or agency workers, are also protected.
But because of the lack of legal protections, job applicants who blow the whistle in other sectors risk being blacklisted and can effectively be excluded from working in their chosen field again.
Whistleblowing charity Protect says the blacklisting of people who have made a protected disclosure is all too frequent; potential employers are put off by the knowledge that a particular candidate has reported wrongdoing at a previous employer.
Whistleblowing: Are there lessons to learn from financial services?
Majority of UK employees would report workplace malpractice
Fear of job loss restricts whistleblowing
Protect has filed a third-party intervention at the Court of Appeal in the case of Sullivan v Isle of Wight Council to widen whistleblowing protections to all external job applicants.
It was given permission to intervene because the case gives rise to important issues of public policy.
Miss Sullivan was invited for two interviews at Isle of Wight Council, after which she alleged...
has moved to calm the nerves of millions of social grant beneficiaries following the circulation of a fake video on social media, which "falsely claims that all recipients must re-register or risk...