Protection for those carrying out health and safety activities

Sections 100 and 44 of the ERA 1996 also provide protection against dismissal and detriment in cases where “having been designated by the employer to carry out activities in connection with preventing or reducing risks to health and safety at work, the employee carried out (or proposed to carry out) any such activities”. Under section 100 (1) (a) of the ERA 1996, dismissal in such circumstances is automatically unfair, as the following case shows:

A track maintenance supervisor was tasked with implementing a new safety procedure. However, the employer had not told his colleagues about the task, and they raised concerns about what the supervisor was trying to do. The employer dismissed him for the “upset” and “friction” that his activities had caused.

The EAT noted that activities done to protect employees’ health and safety will often be resisted or regarded as unwelcome, and it would wholly undermine protection under the Act if an employer could rely upon the upset they caused as a reason for dismissal.

Sinclair v Trackwork Ltd [2000] UKEAT/0129/20

As in other health and safety cases there is no service requirement for bringing an unfair dismissal case in these circumstances.