The Court of Appeal reconsiders the CFI’s power to grant damages for breach of whistleblowing protections. Last April, we reported on the judgment of the Court of First Instance (“CFI“) of the Dubai International Financial Centre (“DIFC”) in the case of Bassam Khalifa v S.W.I.F.T (Dubai) Limited (the “CFI Decision”). The CFI Decision indicated that the CFI has the power … Read more

On 1 July 2019, the amended form of Part 9.4AAA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act), which sought to provide whistleblowers with greater protection than its predecessor, came into force. These amendments also repealed the specific whistleblowing protections in the Banking Act 1959 (Cth), Insurance Act 1973 (Cth), Life Insurance Act 1995 (Cth) … Read more

In Rihan v Ernst & Young (Global) Ltd, the High Court awarded a former partner of Ernst & Young (EY) damages exceeding $11 million, broadly equating to past and future earnings for the rest of his career. The claimant, Mr Rihan, was a whistleblower who publicly disclosed suspected irregularities arising out of an audit for … Read more

Detriment for making a whistleblowing protected disclosure is unlawful, but in some cases it may be possible to establish that the reason for the treatment was the manner of making the disclosure and that this is distinct from the disclosure itself, thereby side-stepping whistleblowing protection. The EAT decision in Riley v Belmont Green Finance t/a … Read more

A recent Court of Appeal ruling highlights the importance of accuracy if an employer is going to publicly rebut a whistleblower’s allegations.  Although an employer is entitled to respond robustly, if the statements it makes are inaccurate or unjustified and damage the whistleblower’s reputation, this could amount to a detriment. It is unlawful to submit … Read more

Our final Asia Employment, Pensions and Incentives update for 2019 looks at: the changes to immigration policies in China, that came into effect 1 August 2019 and relax the requirements for highly-skilled foreign workers and students which had previously been in place; in Malaysia, the amendments outlined in the Industrial Relations Bill which while not … Read more

A recent Supreme Court decision highlights the importance of a thorough investigation of the purported grounds for dismissing an employee, particularly if there could be reasons why a line manager might have engineered the grounds.  The Court ruled in Royal Mail Group v Jhuti that, if a person in the hierarchy of responsibility above an … Read more

The Supreme Court has ruled that UK whistleblowing laws must be read as providing protection against detriment to whistleblowers who do not satisfy the express requirement to be a ‘worker’, in this case judicial office-holders, in order to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights. Article 14 of that Convention makes it unlawful to … Read more