Quote:
Originally Posted by Shell
If you were fired for blowing the whistle
that would another legal violation against the company.
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This site specializing in UK employment law outlines protected disclosures as follows:
Quote:
Qualifying Disclosures
Certain kinds of disclosures qualify for protection ("qualifying disclosures"). Qualifying disclosures are disclosures of information which the worker reasonably believes tend to show one or more of the following matters is either happening now, took place in the past, or is likely to happen in the future :
a criminal offence;
the breach of a legal obligation;
a miscarriage of justice;
a danger to the health or safety of any individual;
damage to the environment; or
deliberate covering up of information tending to show any of the above five matters.
It should be noted that in making a disclosure the worker must have reasonable belief that the information disclosed tends to show one or more of the offences or breaches listed above ('a relevant failure'). The belief need not be correct - it might be discovered subsequently that the worker was in fact wrong - but the worker must show that he held the belief, and that it was a reasonable belief in the circumstances at the time of disclosure.
Protection under the provisions applies even if the qualifying disclosure concerns a relevant failure which took place overseas, or where the law applying to the relevant failure was not that of the United Kingdom.
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My understanding is that UK law requires that employers maintain a non-threatening work environment. therefore SF's workplace breached their legal obligation by not reprimanding the employee who used a racial slur. However, in reality I've heard numerous stories in the US of employers who circumvent whistleblower laws and find other reasons to get rid of employees who cause problems for them. I'm pretty sure that this is a universal phenomenon.