A supposedly renewable energy company dealt with a whistleblowing employee by trying to make her sign a non-disclosure agreement and leave, then by freezing her out, then by sacking her, an employment tribunal has heard.
The claims have been made by the lawyers of a former employee of Drax, who tried to raise her concerns about the company’s environmental credentials.
Drax owns the UK’s largest biomass power plant in north Yorkshire, which has long been accused of greenwashing. The company claims to create “sustainable bioenergy” using the byproducts of lumber and furniture making, but it has repeatedly been found to burn wood from precious forests, causing ecological destruction and releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It has also been accused of “environmental racism” as its wood processing plants, which are linked to toxic emissions and health problems, are mostly based in poor communities of colour in the southern United States.
Rowaa Ahmar joined Drax in August 2022 as head of the public affairs and policy team, a role which involved liaising with government officials, as the company is reliant on government subsidies. She arrived to find a department in disarray, characterised by factional in-fighting and poor management, her lawyers claim.
In October 2022, the BBC aired a Panorama documentary exposing how Drax chops down trees from “old-growth” forests to burn. According to the evidence submitted by Ahmar’s lawyers, the company’s preparation for the documentary’s broadcast were “strikingly lackadaisical”. However, when it was broadcast, it triggered what Ahmar called “a level of chaos that I have never seen before”.
“There was a flurry of emails where Drax seniors were trying, at a high speed, to read legislation, and find loopholes in definitions, and debating what could be said or not said now, and trying to work out what could be said without shining a light on issues that might backfire in the future,” she claims.
Alarmed by the documentary, the department for business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) started asking Drax some questions. Drax had a hard time answering even the most straightforward ones, such as whether a shipment of wood pellets came from Canada. Ahmar’s lawyers claim that senior Drax employees were “walking a precipitous tightrope between accuracy and positive spin”.
In one meeting, Ahmar raised the fact that BEIS civil servants were disappointed that Drax had kept the department in the dark about the documentary before it aired. Drax head of media Ali Lewis said, “why don’t you tell BEIS civil servants to fuck off?”, Ahmar claims.
Despite struggling to put together any evidence, the company put out statements denying the allegations in the documentary and implying that the BBC had acted unlawfully. Internally, it briefed some staff that it might even sue the BBC.
Drax commissioned KPMG to conduct a fact-finding mission into Panorama’s allegations, which found that Drax had misreported data to the regulator, Ofgem, about the sourcing of its wood. Ahmar’s line-manager told her not to pass this information on to senior managers.
At this point, in November 2022, Ahmar wrote to Will Gardiner, Drax’s CEO, setting out her concerns that the company would continue to give the wrong information to Ofgem.
Drax launched an investigation into the concerns, which swiftly turned into an attack on Ahmed’s performance. This was followed by an offer of £50,000 to leave the company and to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Ahmar declined this offer and her probation was extended before she was placed on an indefinite suspension, or “special leave” as the company called it. She was finally dismissed in January 2024.
Drax denies that the termination of Ahmar’s employment was due to her whistleblowing and its lawyers argue it was down to a “breakdown in trust and confidence” with other staff. They say that Ahmar’s story has changed over time.
A Drax spokesperson said: “Drax is committed to acting as a responsible employer that takes all concerns raised seriously. We have a thorough process to ensure that our colleagues are treated respectfully, and in line with the standards we expect of all parties.
“An independent investigation was conducted and concluded there had been a total, fundamental and intractable breakdown in working relationships between the claimant and numerous colleagues. As this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not be commenting on the specifics of the case at this time.”
In February, the government extended subsidies for Drax until 2031 to the dismay of environmentalists and communities in the southern US. However, the subsidies were cut in half.
Ahmar’s employment tribunal is expected to last until 20 April.
