Building DIY Gardening

A shocking case of sacking whistleblowers, John Bromilow and Harry Wildman, repair staff working in Liverpool Prison.

Amey, a building contractor, had just got the contract for prison repairs, and decided to reduce staff by having one man teams (ie, an individual) doing repairs, instead of two men, as had always been the case prior.

This is extremely dangerous in a prison, where tools are used as weapons.

Two repair men with 45 years’ unblemished experience behind them working in prisons, took this through Amey’s internal procedure, got nowhere, so discussed it with the prison governor – so Amey sacked them, claiming they were bringing the firm into disrepute.

Jon Heath, their solicitor at their unfair dismissal case, said, “To dismiss them for having explicitly raised those concerns is one of the more startling examples of an unfair dismissal that I have come across.”

Amey’s response was to say the men should have used their internal processes to pursue the issue – but they’d sacked them, so that sounds hard.

Besides, this is the usual way of not dealing with a problem. But if you are working in a prison, or any other dangerous situation, these issues have to be solved before further action, not ignored whole some office process takes place very slowly (if at all).

There are endless examples of disasters that could have been prevented by proper health and safety – from Space Shuttles exploding on take-off to Croydon tram trains crashing going around corners.

See the full Amey sacking shame story on the BBC