‘Whistleblower’ says legal battle with nuclear site owners ‘almost broke me’

Equality and diversity consultant Alison McDermott said her contract at the nuclear processing plant ended after she wrote a damning "whistleblowing" report about the human resources (HR) leadership team, claiming they had failed to address complaints about bullying and harassment.

After refusing a £160,000 settlement, she took her case to an employment tribunal. But Employment Judge Philip Lancaster dismissed her claim and ruled she was not a whistleblower, following a hearing in Leeds.

She was then ordered to pay £40,000 to help cover the legal costs of Sellafield Ltd and its parent company – the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Sellafield said it is “committed to eradicating bullying and harassment”.

Ms McDermott, from Burley in Wharfedale, has been granted an appeal and she is now raising money to cover her legal costs, ahead of the next hearing in January.

Her legal team have challenged the ruling, but also criticised the judge for refusing to look at the alleged “toxic culture” at Sellafield and alleged failure of the HR team. They said this provides vital context, as it explains Ms McDermott’s decision to become a whistleblower.

“I am doing everything I can because I'm really concerned about what's going on at Sellafield,” she said.

“If I wanted an easy life and I was a gold digger, I would have just taken £160,000 and walked away, but instead I chose to put myself through a court process and spend the money.

“Even though I'm not earning any money at the moment and now they're coming after me for the costs.”

“It’s almost broken me,” she added. “I’ve used my pension savings to bring this case to court. Now I'm facing £40,000 of costs and I've got to find more money for the appeal. They can just use the taxpayers’ money to crush me.”

Ms McDermott signed a two-day-a-week contract with Sellafield Ltd to work as a consultant in equality and diversity at the nuclear fuel reprocessing and decommissioning site in September 2018.

After taking on the role, looked into allegations of sexual harrasment and homophobic abuse.

She also recieved an anonymous letter claiming “serious problems” about sexual harassment “are being ignored”.

The following month, she compiled a report on the HR leadership team, saying they were viewed as "broken and dysfunctional" by some staff and failing to effectively deal with allegations of harassment and bullying.

Shortly after filing the report, she was told her contract would be terminated due to “funding constraints”.

But during the tribunal, Sellafield's lawyers said it was because the report, which had cost around £12,000, was “questionable and insubstantial” and “lacked any meaningful analysis”.

According to the ruling, the judge accepted the funding constraints excuse was used to allow Ms McDermott to leave “with her head held high”.

He ruled she was not a whistleblower, because she could not make any “disclosures” which are protected under UK employment law.

A Sellafield spokesman said: “We are committed to eradicating bullying and harassment at Sellafield. We do not tolerate this behaviour and where we find it, we address it.

“Because we are funded entirely by the UK taxpayer, we have an obligation to defend ourselves against legal action that could incur large sums in compensation, particularly when claims made against us are without foundation as in this case.

“This was a complex case stretching over a number of years which required more than three weeks’ worth of attendance at Employment Tribunal hearings, for which we were entitled to legal representation.

“As with all of our financial decisions, value for money for UK taxpayers was our highest priority. In light of the findings of the Tribunal, which dismissed all of the claims made against us, we judged it prudent to apply for a proportion of our costs to be recovered.”