Ms A Finnigan v Cairllum Care Ltd — 2021

Ms A Finnigan was employed by Cairllum Care Ltd as a Care Support Worker from 5 March 2020. The tribunal found that, during June, July and October 2020, she raised concerns about service users A and B and about matters including missing money, a proposed cheque-cashing arrangement, possible cannabis use at service user A's home, medication errors, and the hygiene practices of a named care worker. It found that she genuinely believed the information she reported and that her disclosures were motivated by concerns for the welfare of vulnerable service users.

The tribunal distinguished between communications that contained sufficient factual information and those that were too general. It held that some of the claimant's concerns about service user B and general care standards were not shown to contain enough factual content to be protected disclosures. By contrast, it found that the July 2020 disclosures about service user A, the 22 and 26 October 2020 disclosures about cannabis joint ends, medication, glove hygiene and the missing money, and the warning about the cheque-cashing proposal and power of attorney, met the requirements of section 43B ERA 1996. The tribunal accepted that the claimant's belief that those matters tended to show criminal offending, breach of legal obligation, or danger to health and safety was reasonable in the circumstances.

The tribunal rejected MC's explanation that he dismissed the claimant because of material discovered later in her personnel file or on internet searches, and it also treated the gossip allegations as subsidiary. It found that the principal reason for dismissal was the protected disclosures of which MC was aware on 27 and 29 July 2020 and on 22 and 26 October 2020, taken as a whole. The tribunal therefore held that the dismissal was automatically unfair under section 103A ERA 1996. It also found that the dismissal was not caused or contributed to by any blameworthy conduct of the claimant and that no Polkey reduction should be made. Remedy was held over to a separate hearing.