Dismissal for taking action on health
and safety grounds.
Employees will be unfairly dismissed if
their employer dismisses them (or
selects them for redundancy when others
in similar circumstances are not
selected) because they:
- carry out or propose to
carry out any activities which
they are designated by their
employer to carry out in
connection with preventing or
reducing risks to health and
safety at work; or
- perform or propose to
perform any functions they have
as official or employer
acknowledged health and safety
representatives or committee
members;
- bring to their employer's
attention, by reasonable means
and in the absence of a
representative or committee with
whom it would be reasonably
practicable for them to raise
the matter, a concern about
circumstances at work which they
reasonably believe are harmful
to health or safety;
- in the event of danger which
they reasonably believe to be
serious and imminent and which
they could not reasonably be
expected to avert, leave or
propose to leave the workplace
or any dangerous part of it, or
(while the danger persists)
refuse to return;
- in circumstances of danger
which they reasonably believe to
be serious and imminent, take or
propose to take appropriate
steps to protect themselves and
other persons from the danger.
It is also unlawful for an
employer to subject an employee
to any other detrimental
treatment on one of these
grounds.
Whether or not the steps
which an employee takes to
protect him or herself or others
from danger are 'appropriate'
will be judged by reference to
all the circumstances including,
in particular, the employee's
knowledge and the facilities and
advice available at the time.
It will not be unfair for an
employer to dismiss an employee
(or subject him or her to any
other detriment) if it was, or
would have been, so negligent
for the employee to take the
steps he or she took, or
proposed to take, that a
reasonable employer could have
reacted in that way.
There is no qualifying period
of service, or age limit, for
employees who wish to complain
that they have been dismissed
for one of the reasons described
in this section.
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