Contrary to its title, the Whistleblower Protection Act protects not only persons who make good faith reports of legal violations. The protection extends also to facilitators and persons connected with the reporting person. They, too, shall not be exposed to any retaliation, such as by being sued or accused in connection with their reports.

Facilitators
Trade union headquarters submitted during the legislative process that they want to intermediate between whistleblowers and employers. This is now possible as union representatives may facilitate the reporting process. For example, they may provide advice on the reporting procedure or whistleblower's rights, or support the whistleblower in writing their report. Facilitation may also come from others, such as a work colleague or line manager. This latter help is particularly worthy of note. A line manager who learns of a violation from their subordinate may help the whistleblower (guide them to the right reporting channel) or make the report themselves.

Persons connected with whistleblower
Making a report leaves the whistleblower vulnerable to retaliation. But retaliation directed against the reporting person may also indirectly hurt others. Or the other way round – retaliation primarily targeted against a third party (e.g. whistleblower's work colleague or family member) may indirectly affect the reporting person themselves. For such reasons retaliation is prohibited also against persons exposed due to their close relationship with the whistleblower.
This may involve whistleblower's work colleagues where the reprisal could be designed to damage their relationships with him. The law also mentions whistleblower's close ones (including those living together with her), who could, for example, be sued or put under charges in an effort to dissuade the whistleblower from escalating the report.

Scope of protection
Persons of all those categories (whistleblowers, facilitators, connected persons) enjoy the same protection. It is prohibited to retaliate, or attempt or threaten to retaliate, against them and to raise accusations or claims against them alleging breach of confidentiality (e.g. business secrets) or copyrights during the reporting process.
Retaliation will be a crime punishable by a fine, a community sentence or imprisonment of up to 2 years. If the criminal conduct was persistent (continued over a longer time or after the perpetrator has been warned), the punishment will be up to 3 years' imprisonment.

Find more in the PRO HR July 2024.