Virgin Healthcare has denied it is “panicking” over a former worker’s employment tribunal claim which claims the company acted unethically.
John Spencer filed a claim against the healthcare provider on the grounds that he was forced to resign after blowing the whistle about the company’s ethical stance over a new network of healthcare centres and potential conflicts of interests with doctors.
Under employment law, firms found guilty of sacking whistleblowers are liable for unlimited compensation. Staff are protected provided they complain under a protected disclosure to the right person in the right manner.
Spencer, who had been employed for just six weeks between January and February this year, told Personnel Today: “The protected disclosure I made is fairly damning, and I think Virgin is panicking and wants to try and settle the claim before it gets to employment tribunal.”
But Virgin Healthcare chief executive Mark Adams strongly denied the allegations. “Spencer raised a protected disclosure two weeks after he’d left the organisation. There’s a very strong chance the tribunal claim will be rejected.”
He added he was “not bothered either way” if the case reached court. “If Spencer needed his day in court and I had to bring in doctor after doctor, risk manager after risk manager, showing how the [healthcare centre] model has evolved and how it bears no relationship to his allegations, that would not be a bad thing.”
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