Ms M Pessoa v Bupa Care Homes (GL) Ltd — 2019

The claimant, a care assistant at Fountain Lodge, made a Speak Up complaint after witnessing another carer provide care to a resident in a way she regarded as abuse. The tribunal found this was a qualifying protected disclosure made in the public interest, concerning possible breach of legal obligations and/or risk to health and safety. It also found the respondent took the complaint seriously, investigated it, suspended the other carer during the process, and fed back that lessons had been learned.

The tribunal considered the claimant's 27 alleged whistleblowing detriments. It found that some alleged incidents did not occur, some were not capable of amounting to detriments, and others reflected ordinary work requirements, supervision, training, or factual communications. Where events could potentially have been detrimental, the tribunal found they were not caused by the protected disclosure. The whistleblowing detriment claim therefore failed, and the automatic unfair dismissal claim also failed because the incidents relied on as causing the resignation were not whistleblowing detriments.

On disability discrimination, the tribunal found the claimant was disabled by diabetes and that the respondent had actual or constructive knowledge by 4 March 2019. However, it did not accept that the claimant was denied sugar or denied sufficient recovery time as pleaded. It found she was asked not to eat residents' food, then consumed milk and sugar shortly afterwards, and that managers attempted to understand her medical situation during a short and difficult meeting. The discrimination arising from disability claim was not upheld.