Half of whistleblowers end up dismissed or resigning after they raise concerns, according to a leading charity.

Public Concern at Work’s (PCW) report on the state of whistleblowing revealed that 50% of workers who report a problem part company with their employers. The figure is an improvement on the last report, in 2012, which found that 55% were losing their jobs.

This year more than a quarter of whistleblowers also reported suffering reprisals. “Fifty percent of whistleblowers reported being dismissed or resigned after raising their concern. A further 28% were bullied by co-workers or victimised and/or disciplined by their employer. This means that almost eight out of ten whistleblowers suffer some sort of reprisal after raising a concern,” PCW’s report said.

The figures are gathered when PCW contacts whistleblowers six months after concerns are made. PCW also said that 52% of reports by whistleblowers were met with no action, an improvement on 2012 when the figure was 63%. The report said: “Although we welcome the reduction in the number of cases where concerns are ignored or denied by employers, we remain worried that the concerns raised by the majority of whistleblowers are still ignored or denied by organisations.

“More needs to be done by organisations to ensure that they have effective whistleblowing arrangements which are sensitive to concerns raised by whistleblowers.”