The Court of Appeal has upheld tribunal and EAT decisions that a whistle-blower who was dismissed for criticising a colleague when making a whistle-blowing allegation was not automatically unfairly dismissed even though, viewed objectively, her conduct was reasonable.
THE FACTS
Ms Kong was employed by Gulf International Bank (UK) Ltd as head of financial audit. She had concerns about a template legal agreement relating to an investment product, and raised these concerns verbally and in emails to Ms Harding, the Head of Legal who was responsible for the template. It was later accepted in the employment tribunal that, in raising these concerns, Ms Kong was a whistle-blower.
Ms Harding disagreed with Ms Kong’s concerns. She went to Ms Kong’s office and confronted her. During this meeting, Ms Kong questioned Ms Harding’s legal awareness. This was followed by exchanges of emails. Ms Harding thought that Ms Kong had impugned her integrity and raised the matter with the Head of HR and the CEO. Ms Kong said that she was very upset, and gave the impression that she could not work with Ms Harding again. She declined mediation.
The Head of HR, the CEO and Ms Kong’s manager came to a collective decision that Ms Kong should be dismissed. Ms Kong was told that her behaviour, manner and approach with colleagues had resulted in colleagues not wanting to work with her, but that the dismissal was not connected to the protected disclosures. The dismissal letter specifically referred to Ms...
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