Protected Disclosures Act 2014
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Other protection of employees from penalisation for having made protected disclosure | ||
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12. (1) An employer shall not penalise or threaten penalisation against an employee, or cause or permit any other person to penalise or threaten penalisation against an employee, for having made a protected disclosure. | ||
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to the dismissal of an employee to whom section 6 (2)(ba) of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 applies. | ||
(3) Schedule 2 shall have effect in relation to an alleged contravention of subsection (1) . | ||
(4) Subsection (3) does not apply in relation to the penalisation of an employee if the employee is within paragraph (d) of section 2 (1) of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 . | ||
(5) Any person who, on examination authorised under paragraph 3(1) of Schedule 2 , wilfully makes any material statement which the person knows to be false or does not believe to be true commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both. | ||
(6) A person to whom a notice under paragraph 3(2) of Schedule 2 has been given and who refuses or wilfully neglects to attend in accordance with the notice or who, having so attended, refuses to give evidence or refuses or wilfully fails to produce any document to which the notice relates commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a class A fine. | ||
(7) A document purporting to be signed by the chairperson or a deputy chairperson of the Labour Court stating that— | ||
(a) a person named in the document was, by a notice under paragraph 3(2) of Schedule 2 , required to attend before the Labour Court on a day and at a time and place specified in the document, to give evidence or produce a document, or both, and | ||
(b) a sitting of the Labour Court was held on that day and at that time and place, and the person did not attend before the Labour Court pursuant to the notice or, having so attended, refused to give evidence or refused or wilfully failed to produce the document, shall, in a prosecution of the person for an offence under subsection (6) , be evidence of the matters so stated without further proof unless the contrary is shown. | ||
(8) Summary proceedings for an offence under subsection (5) or (6) may be brought and prosecuted by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. | ||
(9) Where an offence under subsection (5) or (6) is committed by a body corporate and it is proved that the offence was committed with the consent or connivance, or was attributable to any wilful neglect, of a person who was a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person purporting to act in that capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, is guilty of an offence and may be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence. | ||
(10) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, subsection (9) applies in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his or her functions of management as if he or she were a director or manager of the body corporate. |