Victimisation of whistleblowers by their co-workers

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 is to introduce an important change to whistleblowing law, extending protection to whistleblowers who are bullied or harassed by their co-workers because of their decision to blow the whistle. The new law will make the employer vicariously liable for the acts of co-workers who victimise a colleague for this reason, reversing the case of NHS Manchester v Fecitt [2012] IRLR 64, in which the Court of Appeal decided that an employer cannot be vicariously liable for acts of employees which were not of themselves unlawful. The implementation date for this change is not yet known.

In May 2013, PCAW released the results of a survey of 1,000 whistleblowers showing that around 60% of workers who raised concerns about their workplace received no response from their managers; one in five of those surveyed were disciplined or demoted after speaking up and 15% were sacked.