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Timis v. Osipov: Personal Liability? Decision Makers and Advances in Whistleblowing

Marson, James; Ferris, Katy; Jefferson, Michael

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Authors

James Marson

Profile image of KATY FERRIS

KATY FERRIS Katy.Ferris@nottingham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Michael Jefferson



Abstract

Much has been written recently about employment status including bogus self-employment, atypical workers, zero hours contracts and about vicarious liability in the law of torts and employment law. The case under discussion does not deal with these issues but with related interesting issues involving categorisation of working people into employees and workers so as to determine the remedy for whistleblowing under statute and with whether liability in that area of law can be both direct and vicarious. To understand the case one needs to appreciate that the law of unfair dismissal as set out in the Employment Rights Act 1996 applies only to ‘employees’ and therefore both those classified as ‘workers’ and as independent contractors do not; however, workers, though not independent contractors dismissed solely or principally for one of the reasons which would be potentially unfair (prima facie invalid) may have a different remedy when the claim is one whistleblowing. In relation to vicarious liability under the relevant statute, the Employment Rights Act 1996, there was on the facts of the case to be discussed no doubt that the employers were vicariously liable, but could they also be directly liable? The authority below demonstrates that because of the scheme of the Act both that a worker dismissed for whistleblowing has a remedy not for unfair dismissal because he is not an employee but for ‘detriment’, the detriment being put through a disciplinary process. This preserves the law since 1 January 1972 that remedies for unfair dismissal are granted only to those classed as employees. In respect of vicarious liability, as this commentary shows, both direct and vicarious liability are available against employers in a whistleblowing case. The consequences of these decisions are noted at the end.

Citation

Marson, J., Ferris, K., & Jefferson, M. (2020). Timis v. Osipov: Personal Liability? Decision Makers and Advances in Whistleblowing. Business Law Review, 41(1), 34-35. https://doi.org/10.54648/bula2020005

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 18, 2019
Publication Date 2020-02
Deposit Date Dec 17, 2019
Publicly Available Date Feb 29, 2020
Print ISSN 0143-6295
Publisher Kluwer Law International
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 41
Issue 1
Pages 34-35
DOI https://doi.org/10.54648/bula2020005
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3586670
Publisher URL https://kluwerlawonline.com/journalarticle/Business+Law+Review/41.1/BULA2020005

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