Littlewood v Nuffield Health – She Blew the Whistle – It Cost the Employer £149,017
Whistleblowing and Constructive Dismissal
She Blew the Whistle – It Cost the Employer £149,017
In the case of Littlewood v Nuffield Health, claimant, a personal trainer, identified that a candidate’s blood pressure was too high to safely undertake a Ministry of Defence fitness test. Despite this, her manager allowed the test to proceed.
The claimant made a protected disclosure raising concerns about this decision.
Following this disclosure, she experienced a pattern of detrimental treatment, including:
- The withholding of three hours’ pay per week
- A false disciplinary allegation
- The imposition of a final written warning
Subsequently, while the claimant was representing Great Britain at the European Canoe Polo Championships in Germany, she was required to attend an urgent meeting. She travelled approximately 800 miles overnight to do so, but her manager failed to attend.
That was the last straw. She resigned.
The judge called the treatment “contemptuous and wholly unreasonable.” Nuffield Health got a £149,017 bill to prove it.
3 lessons for HR
- Whistleblowing is not a problem to manage. It is a disclosure to investigate.
- Managers who close ranks against a whistleblower are not protecting the business. They are building the claimant’s case.
- If your managers ‘don’t like being challenged,’ that is a culture problem.
