Sellafield whistleblower Alison McDermott partially loses appeal

A whistleblower has lost her appeal against an employment tribunal although a judge did find problems with how her case was handled.

Equality consultant Alison McDermott said she was let go from nuclear site Sellafield after flagging a "toxic culture", a claim Sellafield denied.

The previous tribunal judge concluded she was not a whistleblower.

However, an appeal judge found there had been errors in her tribunal but not enough to warrant a new one.

Ms McDermott appealed against the original judgement made by Judge Philip Lancaster on 13 grounds as well as the order he made for her to pay £40,000 costs.

Ms McDermott began working at the site on the Cumbria coast in September 2018 under the direction of human resources manager Heather Roberts, who was also a respondent in Ms McDermott's case along with Sellafield and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Ms McDermott said she was let go the following month after saying an investigation should be carried out into claims of sexual harassment by an employee and a subsequent cover-up.

Sellafield said the contract was terminated because of the quality of her work.

However, at the 2021 tribunal the company admitted lying to her about the reason by saying it was because of budgetary constraints, which the judge said was to spare her feelings and protect her professional reputation from harm.

Appeal judge HHJ Simon Auerbach said "although some grounds of appeal were partially successful", they were "not sufficient to disturb" the original tribunal's findings.

He criticised the award of costs against Ms McDermott as "unsafe" however and said the tone of Judge Lancaster's remarks on the subject were "troubling".

He also said the tribunal held in Leeds was "wrong to say" Ms McDermott was not a whistleblower and did not make a "protected disclosure".

Ms McDermott has been approached for comment.

A Sellafield spokesman said the appeal judgement was welcome, adding the original tribunal had found Ms McDermott's claims were "entirely without substance".

He said: "We remain committed to eradicating bullying and harassment. We do not tolerate this behaviour and where we find it, we address it."

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