What is the legal development?

Disclosures in relation to personal employment contracts can still amount to ‘protected disclosures’.

In 2013 the requirement for ‘good faith’ when making a protected disclosure was replaced by the need for the disclosure to be made in the reasonable belief that it is ‘in the public interest’.

A recent EAT case considered facts where a manager complained that the over stated costs of running the Respondent’s London office had an adverse impact on his bonus (as with 100 other senior managers). The EAT concluded that even though the prime motivation was to secure his own bonus, as he also had in mind his colleagues, the disclosure could be in the ‘public interest’ and therefore amount to a protected disclosure.

It was thought that the changes in 2013 would deprive employees of the ‘whistleblower‘ protections if they were simply raising concerns about their personal employment contract. This case suggests that such disclosures could still be protected if the issue raised has wider impact for other employees, and there is a reasonable belief that the disclosure is made in the public interest.

What does this mean for employers?

Take care when addressing any individual conduct or performance. Even if the performance or conduct appears to be entirely separate, it is worth checking that it really is unrelated to some other action that amounts to a ‘protected disclosure’.