Fifth of Covid whistleblowers 'dismissed'
Nearly half of employees with worries about coronavirus have been ignored by employers, and a fifth of whistleblowers dismissed for raising concerns according to the Protect charity.
Protect says that of 600 Covid-related calls received by its advice line the majority were over furlough fraud and safety risks such as a lack of social distancing and PPE in the workplace.
It found that:
• 41% of whistleblowers had Covid-19 concerns ignored by employers;
• 20% of whistleblowers were dismissed for raising Covid-19 concerns;
• managers were more likely to be dismissed for raising Covid-19 concerns, with 32% of managers compared with 21% of non-managers losing their jobs; and
• furlough fraud came mostly from very small organisations – 76% of callers described the company size as between one and 49 employees.