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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; or
- 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; or
- 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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