Ms Lorraine Heffernan:

I will make one other point on the issue. It is important to bear in mind that the level of award under the Unfair Dismissals Act is confined to pure financial loss. Therefore, if a worker is dismissed for having made a protected disclosure and they get another job fairly quickly, the level of compensation is going to be very limited. That also causes the disparity between someone who has been penalised while he or she is actually working and who potentially has access to a greater level of compensation than somebody who has actually been dismissed and has lost his or her job. I think there is an issue there.

I would also like to comment on the timeframes for investigations. The balance of power is not with the discloser; it is with the employer. The employer is in full control all the time. I have come across an investigation being dragged out. Often these workers are actually very loyal employees. They trust their employer to do the right thing. It is very disconcerting when they discover that something is going on the employer does not react in the way they think they ought to, an investigation then eventually starts but it gets dragged out. What happens then is that the employee loses their rights at the WRC if they trust in the process. It could be that they have been penalised and perhaps a period of over six months has passed. It is quite difficult to get an extension of time from the WRC if one does not bring one's claim within six months. That is another factor to bear in mind in trying to rein in those long investigations. Certainly, in my experience, client investigations regularly go on for over one year.