Sellafield 'whistleblower' ordered to pay £5k

HR consultant Alison McDermott claimed she was a whistleblower who was unfairly dismissed

An HR consultant who lost an employment tribunal after claiming she was unfairly dismissed from Sellafield for raising bullying concerns has been ordered to pay £5,000 costs.

Alison McDermott had initially faced a £40,000 bill, but it has been reduced on appeal.

She said she was a whistleblower whose contract was unfairly terminated by the nuclear processing site in Cumbria, but a tribunal found against her.

Ms McDermott said she believed justice had "roundly failed" her, but she was going to "move on".

Sellafield processes nuclear waste on the Cumbrian coast

Ms McDermott, from near Ilkley in West Yorkshire, worked as a human resources (HR) and diversity consultant at the Cumbrian coastal site for several months in 2018.

She said she was dismissed after raising concerns of bullying behaviour, but an employment tribunal in 2021 found against her and she was ordered to pay £20,000 costs to each of Sellafield and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

An appeal found aspects of that 2021 tribunal "troubling" but still concluded she had been fairly dismissed, although the costs awarded against her were deemed "unsafe".

Following a fresh costs hearing in April, judges said she should pay £5,000, as claims she made that Sellafield and the NDA had "fabricated or tampered with documents" in her case had been "unreasonable".

Lawyers for Sellafield and the NDA had said their claims of £20,000 each had been much less than the actual costs racked up in her case and they owed it to taxpayers to pursue them.

'Values and principles'

Ms McDermott was one of a number of women to make complaints about the conduct of the employment judge who presided over her initial tribunal.

In response to the latest costs finding, Ms McDermott said: "I believe justice has roundly failed me and the public as I was speaking out about serious issues at Sellafield.

"I now am going to draw a line under this and move on with my life.

"I stood up for my values and principles and refused to sell my silence."

A spokesman on behalf of Sellafield and the NDA said as "taxpayer funded organisations" they had an "obligation to defend" themselves against legal action and to consider costs.

He said: "The judgements of the Employment Tribunal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the Court of Appeal still stand, that the claims made against Sellafield in this case were entirely without substance, and there was no basis for claims against the NDA."