Health and safety complaints

* Workers have protection if they suffer a detriment after raising a complaint about a health and safety risk.

The facts

Police officer Douglas Fisher raised a health and safety complaint after management sought to introduce a policy where officers would go solo on the beat. He did not raise the matter with the health and safety committee, claiming that he did not know who the representatives were. He later claimed that he had suffered a detriment for raising the complaint.

The ruling

Under section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, a worker can only bring a claim for detriment following a health and safety complaint made to their employer if there was no health and safety committee, or if it was not reasonably practicable for them to bring the complaint to the committee.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that Fisher could have discovered who the health and safety representatives were from the police intranet. However, he had received a letter from a senior officer threatening his job if he pursued his complaint, which had made it impracticable for him to pursue it through the committee. He was therefore allowed to pursue his claim.

Chief Constable of Tayside Police v Fisher EATS/0048/04