Whistle-blower’s good faith

Street v Derbyshire Unemployed Workers’ Centre CA TLR 6 September

To claim the protection of s103A of the Employment Rights Act 1996, a whistle-blower must not only have an honest belief in what she is alleging but must also make the allegation with the sincerity of intention for which the Act is designed and not for an ulterior and, say, malicious purpose. An employment tribunal should find that a disclosure was not made in good faith only when it was of the view that the dominant or predominant purpose of making it was for some ulterior motive. In the present case the employment tribunal had plainly found that personal antagonism was Mrs Street’s dominant, if not sole, motive. The EAT had been right not to interfere with that finding.