Whistle blower’s belief

Babula v Waltham Forest College CA TLR 17 April

Where an employee made a claim for unfair dismissal asserting that the dismissal was to be regarded as automatically unfair because he had made a protected disclosure, it was sufficient that he reasonably believed that the matters that he relied on amounted to a criminal offence, or founded a legal obligation. He did not have to be able to point to an actual criminal offence or to an actual legal obligation. Section 43A of the Employment Rights Act 1996, as inserted by s1 of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, defines a ‘protected disclosure’ as a qualifying disclosure, defined in s43B, made by a worker in accordance with any of ss43C–43H.