Member J Burnett Tribunal Member W Canning Mr D Hiddleston v Highland Country Buses — 2021

The claimant, Mr Douglas Hiddleston, worked for Highland Country Buses Limited as a shift mechanic and was sent to the Kirkwall depot in Orkney in July 2020. On 15 July 2020 he told Ali Jack that the wrong grade of oil had been used in buses at the depot, that he believed this had caused damage to gearboxes and other components, and that it could affect braking systems. The tribunal accepted that he had a reasonable belief that the circumstances were harmful or potentially harmful to health or safety, and that it was not reasonably practicable for him to raise the matter through the safety representative because he had received no induction at Kirkwall and did not know who the representative was.

The tribunal also accepted that the claimant made a qualifying disclosure in the public interest for the purposes of s.43B ERA 1996. It found that, in the context of public transport, his concerns were sufficiently clear to amount to a disclosure tending to show that health or safety had been endangered. However, the tribunal was not persuaded that the reason or principal reason for dismissal was the raising of those concerns. It recorded serious criticisms of the respondent's handling of the grievance and disciplinary process, including the failure to pass the formal grievance letter to the grievance investigator and the failure to interview key witnesses, but it found that these procedural failings did not establish that the dismissal reason was whistleblowing or health and safety activity.

Instead, the tribunal accepted the evidence of the dismissing and appeal managers that the claimant was dismissed because they believed he had used threatening or at least highly insubordinate language towards Mr Willis on 17 July 2020. It noted that the dismissal letter referred to threatening behaviour towards another employee, and that the appeal outcome was based on the claimant's admitted words. The tribunal therefore dismissed both the s.100 health and safety dismissal claim and the s.103A protected disclosure claim, and no remedy arose.