The claimant said that his dismissal was automatically unfair on the basis that he had made a qualifying disclosure.
Held: ‘the worker’s reasonable belief in s.43B(1) relates to the information which he is disclosing and not to the existence of a legal obligation which does not actually exist. In other words if the employers are under no legal obligation, as a matter of law, a worker cannot claim the protection of this legislation by claiming that he reasonably believed that they were. His belief and the reasonableness of it in our view relates to the factual information in his possession, namely what he perceives to be the facts and the basis on which he considers it reasonable to rely upon them. This can only properly be tested against the background of the legal obligation, ‘to which [the employer or other person] is subject’. If there is no obligation to which they actually are subject the worker’s suggestion that he reasonably believed they were cannot render the disclosure a protected one within sections 43A and B. The tribunal’s failure to refer expressly to ‘reasonable belief’ on the facts of this case therefore does not in our view constitute an error of law. It simply did not arise for consideration in this case.’
Citations:
[2003] EAT 0360 – 03 – 2011, [2003] UKEAT 0360 – 03 – 2011, [2004] IRLR 260
Links:
Statutes:
Employment Rights Act 1996 47B
Cited by:
Cited – Babula v Waltham Forest College CA 21-Jul-2006
Renewed application for permission to appeal. . .
Cited – Babula v Waltham Forest College CA 7-Mar-2007
The claimant said his dismissal had been automatically unfair under section 106(a) which protected him as a whistleblower. The court was asked whether any disclosure had to relate to an actual criminal offence, or otherwise what would be sufficient. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment
Updated: 08 June 2022; Ref: scu.188345