A whistleblower is a worker who makes a report of certain types of wrongdoing usually seen at work but not always.
This wrongdoing you disclose must be in the public interest. For example it must affect others such as the general public.
If you report any of the following:
- a criminal offence, for example fraud
- someone’s health and safety is in danger
- risk or actual damage to the environment
- a miscarriage of justice
- the company is breaking the law, for example does not have the right insurance
- you believe someone is covering up wrongdoing
If you report any of the above you are protected.
DeeAnn reported her female colleague being the victim of a criminal act. Her male colleague who is still in employment to this day walked behind the female colleague as she exited the room that they were all in at the time of the event and he threw a punch to the back of her head and called her a wh""e. Every officer that was in the room saw and heard exactly what DeeAnn had seen. There were 2 other fishery officers and 1 senior fishery officer. Instead of the senior officer trying to calm down the situation he told the officer that threw the punch to make sure that when he hit the female colleague that he made it a good one.
The only person on that day of the incident that did anything was DeeAnn. She stood up to them all. She told the officer who threw the punch that he was wrong and told the rest of the officers that what just happened was subject to dismissal. Not one of them said anything.
DeeAnn made a qualifying disclosure. A qualifying disclosure made internally to an employer or other reasonable person is protected if the minimum requirement for protection is met, ie if the whistleblower has a reasonable belief that the disclosure is in the public interest. This low threshold is intended to encourage disclosures to be made internally, with the view that employers will honestly and diligently address the issue to which the disclosure relates.
The incident was raised with the senior management within Marine Scotland Compliance and human resources but initially they did nothing until they were further prompted by the trade union involved because the toxic work environment became worse for the female colleague and DeeAnn. It was at that point that disciplinary action was taken against 2 officers involved in the incident on the day. The result of the disciplinary was that they both got a pat on the back and promotion.
DeeAnn was forced to go from remaining anonymous to being a target because human resources team needed direct proof of a witness that was there the time of incident. It was after this that our sister became the target for the senior management team because DeeAnn was not protected. It was here that the senior management team started their long road of institutional harassment, bullying and intimidation towards DeeAnn. If you don't stand with the boys then the target remains on your back forever.
4 members of the senior management team, all male shared numerous email exchanges about our sister gossiping about her private life. Making fun of her if she took time off work for stress. They used other members of staff to befriend DeeAnn to find out very personal information. The management team and human resources sent the welfare officer to meet with DeeAnn so that they would report back private and confidential information about DeeAnn and her mother. They used entrapment methods to gain information illegally and then they falsified details to discredit DeeAnn's personal character.
They gained access to DeeAnn's emails to seek information between DeeAnn and her trade union representative. They used other members of staff documents to say that she made fraudulent claims but forgetting that the name of the document was not that of DeeAnn.
DeeAnn assisted her business manager when asked to contact the police to seek information for him. DeeAnn done this in his presence and other staff members. Later this same business manager sent an email to the other senior management team and accused DeeAnn of having a relationship with this Chief Inspector, a man who DeeAnn does not know personally. Another more senior member of management told human resources and his management team that they need to be reminded of the type of person that they were dealing with, he said that DeeAnn had affairs with married men. An allegation that is false but yet because they are management they could get away with making such statements.
A senior member of human resources said that they failed DeeAnn and she is right but yet she did nothing. Can anyone within the Scottish Government and Marine Scotland Compliance explain to our family why you did not stop this abuse when it was reported to you? Why did you allow a group of men to pursue DeeAnn the way that they have? Have you secretly viewed their emails? Have you spoken to other members of staff that you have been made aware of that have been bullied by them? Why are you protecting the bullies and not the victims?

You promote what you see. What you have done is set an extremely inappropriate example to all of the workforce with the Scottish Government if you allow these men to get away with what they have done to our sister for over a decade. It is in the public's best interest if they know that you are allowing bullies to climb the corporate ladder and scaremonger those below them. I have seen documents, 100s of them that give evidence that our sister has been slandered and abused.
For each member who have supported this campaign to get the First Minister to speak with DeeAnn should know that there are members of the human resources team keeping note of this petition and the senior management team are taking note of what our family has to say. To the human resources and senior management team, we will not give up because what you have done to our sister is so wrong on so many levels.
You have made her stay home from her place of work for nearly 2 years now. You made her go to occupational health to be able to go back to work and yet you are putting her through hell since. You tell her that she is not suspended but yet staff have been advised not to communicate with her. DeeAnn had an excellent working relationship with her staff as senior officer but your management team sought to destroy that also. Now you seek to dismiss her, don't you think that after the last few years since you found out that she was taking you to employment tribunal to make you stop this abuse was enough for her? You seek to go that extra mile but we will be there for DeeAnn all the way.
No one has the right to abuse a person because they are a woman, foreign and strong. When you employed DeeAnn there was high hopes that she would progress in her career but we can see now that only happens if "you play ball with the boys club." Please take off the rose tinted glasses and let DeeAnn speak with the First Minister.

Take the target off our sister's back.  Stop protecting the bullies, "the boys club."

Whistleblowers are important people too and they matter.