{"id":4914,"date":"2016-09-28T09:04:16","date_gmt":"2016-09-28T09:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplylaw.waydevelopers.com\/england-wales\/wiki\/whistleblowing-legislation-includes-agency-workers\/"},"modified":"2023-11-04T13:12:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T13:12:06","slug":"whistleblowing-legislation-includes-agency-workers","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/simply.law\/england-wales\/articles\/whistleblowing-legislation-includes-agency-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware of agency workers blowing whistles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\"><span face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial;\">In the case of <i>McTigue v University Hospital Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, <\/i>the Employment Appeal Tribunal has clarified that the meaning\u00a0of \u2018worker\u2019 under the whistleblowing provisions extends to agency workers. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><strong><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\">Facts<\/span><\/span><\/strong><span><br \/><span size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\"><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Ms McTigue was employed by an agency and was assigned to work as a nurse for the NHS Trust in Bristol. She had a contract of employment with the agency and was\u00a0also subject to certain terms issued by the Trust, including the Trust&#8217;s right to terminate the contract for any reason or concern that might jeopardise the quality of patient care.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Ms McTigue was removed from the assignment in December 2013, and brought a detriment claim based on\u00a0protected disclosures that she had made to the Trust.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">An employment tribunal found that it had no jurisdiction to hear the claim because\u00a0Ms McTigue was not a \u2018worker\u2019 of the Trust for the purposes of the whistleblowing\u00a0legislation. Under the legislation, a \u2018worker\u2019 includes someone who works for an organisation in circumstances where she was supplied to carry out that work by a third party and the terms on which she is engaged to do the work are in practice substantially determined by either the organisation for which she works, or by the third party, or by both of them. The judge concluded that as most of Ms McTigue\u2019s terms and conditions of employment were set by the agency, Ms McTigue could not be a \u2018worker\u2019 of the Trust.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">Ms McTigue appealed to the EAT. <br \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><strong>EAT Decision<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">The EAT allowed the appeal, concluding that the tribunal had erred in its interpretation of the extended definition of \u2018worker\u2019 in the whistleblowing provisions. The EAT said it was irrelevant whether the agency or the Trust determined the terms of Ms McTigue\u2019s engagement to a greater or lesser extent than the other. As the Trust had set some of the terms of her engagement, it could be classed as Ms McTigue\u2019s employer, as well as the agency, for the purposes of the whistleblowing legislation.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">The case has been sent back to be re-heard by a new tribunal.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><strong><span><span size=\"2\" style=\"font-size: small;\">Comment<\/span><\/span><\/strong><b><span><br \/><\/span><\/b><span><br \/><span size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">This case confirms that where the terms of an individual\u2019s assignment are drawn from\u00a0multiple parties, it is not necessary to determine which terms derive from which party\u00a0for the purpose of deciding whether they are protected under the whistleblowing\u00a0provisions. The EAT confirmed that an agency worker could have two \u2018employers\u2019 for the purposes of a whistleblowing claim where both the agency worker and the end-user <\/span><\/span><span><span size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">have a hand in setting the worker\u2019s terms.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><span><span size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">The case highlights the breadth of the protection afforded under the whistleblowing legislation. If you are an employer who uses agency workers and have any say in the terms and conditions of those workers, you may find that you are liable under the whistleblowing legislation if you terminate the engagement of that agency worker in circumstances where they have blown the whistle.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\"><i><span><span size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\" style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: small;\">McTigue v University Hospital Bristol NHS Foundation Trust UKEAT\/0354\/15<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The case of a nurse has led the EAT to clarify that the meaning of \u2018worker\u2019 under the whistleblowing provisions extends to agency workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7975,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12331,12329],"tags":[11603,11606,11572,11604,11605,11602],"class_list":{"0":"post-4914","1":"articles","2":"type-articles","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-employment-law-for-employees","8":"category-employment-law-for-employers","9":"tag-agency-worker","10":"tag-detriment-claim","11":"tag-employment-appeal-tribunal","12":"tag-mctigue-v-university-hospital-bristol-nhs-foundation-trust","13":"tag-protected-disclosures","14":"tag-whistleblowing-legislation"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Beware of agency workers blowing whistles - Simply Law England Wales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;Explore our comprehensive collection of legal articles covering various topics to help you navigate the complexities of the law. 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