Landmark Supreme Court judgment extending whistleblowing protection

The Supreme Court, in Jhuti v Royal Mail, has reversed the Court of Appeal’s decision and held that an employee was unfairly dismissed for making a protected disclosure despite the fact that the decision-maker was unaware of the disclosure.

After the employee had made a protected disclosure to her line manager, she was subjected to an onerous performance management process in which her manager set unrealistic targets and presented a false picture to HR. The company appointed another manager to review her performance, who relied upon the performance information provided, and the employee was dismissed.

The Supreme Court found that where a more senior person than the employee decides they should be dismissed because of a protected disclosure but hides this reason behind an invented one (i.e. poor performance) which is subsequently adopted by the decision maker, the hidden reason will be found by the court to be the actual reason for dismissal.