Member Mrs J Ward Tribunal Member Ms N Bakshi Mrs Helen Hendrie v Templeton Care LLP — 2019

The tribunal sat in Glasgow on 4 to 7 February 2019, with a members' meeting on 30 May 2019, before Employment Judge I McPherson with Tribunal Member Mrs J Ward and Tribunal Member Ms N Bakshi. The claimant, Mrs Helen Hendrie, had been employed by Templeton Care LLP as Home Manager at Templeton House, Ayr from 1 April 2016. Her salary increased from £50,000 to £52,500 in October 2017. She brought a whistleblowing claim under s.103A ERA 1996, alleging that she had been automatically unfairly constructively dismissed after making protected disclosures in late 2017.

The claimant identified seven alleged disclosures, including concerns about silencing buzzers, an agency nurse working at Templeton after previously being let go, residents sleeping in a wheelchair, missing tramadol, the evacuation of residents from Crossgates after a fire, lack of support from management, and a meeting with Paul Tatla on 20 December 2017. The tribunal accepted that the matters were raised with management, but held that none of them amounted to qualifying protected disclosures under s.43B ERA 1996. It found that several were differences of opinion about care management rather than disclosures of information tending to show a criminal offence, breach of legal obligation, or danger to health and safety, while the emergency evacuation matters were not shown to be disclosures in the public interest. The tribunal also found that the final alleged disclosure to Mr Tatla was too vague.

On dismissal, the tribunal found that the claimant was not dismissed actually or constructively. It held that she resigned on mutually agreed terms after the 20 December 2017 meeting, with her resignation post-dated to 27 December 2017 in return for three months' pay and a reference. The tribunal therefore dismissed the s.103A automatic unfair dismissal complaint. It also recorded that there was no basis to treat the termination as one caused by protected disclosure.

The tribunal refused the claimant's holiday pay claim of £6,663, stating that there was no proper holiday pay claim before it and that the ET1 had been registered as a whistleblowing complaint. It concluded that the claimant was not entitled to any compensation from the respondents.