Report into Covid-related whistleblowing calls to the Protect advice Line

What does whistleblowing in a pandemic look like? Do employers take concerns more seriously – as we would all hope? Does the victimisation of whistleblowers still happen? Does a pandemic compel more people to speak up? We wanted to know, so Protect analysed the data from all the Covid-19 related calls to theirr Advice Line. They found:

* 41% of whistleblowers had Covid-19 concerns ignored by employers
* 20% of whistleblowers were dismissed
* Managers more likely to be dismissed (32% ) than non-managers (21%)

They found that too many whistleblowers feel ignored and isolated once they raise their concerns and that these failing are a systematic problem.

Protect, which runs an Advice Line for whistleblowers, and supports more than 3,000 whistleblowers each year, has been inundated with Covid-19 whistleblowing concerns, many of an extremely serious nature. Its report, The Best Warning System: Whistleblowing During Covid-19 examines over 600 Covid-19 calls to its Advice Line between March and September. The majority of cases were over furlough fraud and risk to public safety, such as a lack of social distancing and PPE in the workplace.