A charity chair has resigned after a court recently ruled against his claim that whistleblowing rights should be applied to voluntary trustees.
In February, the Employment Tribunal (ET) ruled that Nigel MacLennan was not able to claim whistleblowing protection as an employee might when he served as a trustee and president-elect of the British Psychological Society (BPS).
MacLennan, who plans to appeal the ruling, has now stepped down from the board of children’s classical music charity Playground Proms.
In a letter sent to the Charity Commission last week, MacLennan said his decision to step down from Playground Proms was a “reflection of the unsustainable and hazardous legal environment in which all UK charity trustees are now forced to operate”.
“As a trustee, the law imposes upon me a strict duty of candour and a legal obligation to challenge and report wrongdoing,” his letter reads.
“However, the UK legal framework fails to provide trustees with the fundamental protections afforded to ‘workers’ under the Employment Rights Act 1996.”
MacLennan argued that, without whistleblowing protection, trustees challenging wrongdoing such as governance failures are open to “arbitrary and capricious treatment” or removal from their charity.
Such removals lead to reputational and psychological harm for those trustees ousted, he said “for which the current law provides no remedy or protection”.
MacLennan had raised concerns about BPS’s governance and finances...
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