Whistleblower protection to be enacted still this year. Reports on employment law violations and corruption covered by protection
2024.04.23
After more than two years of work, the government has approved a bill of the whistleblower protection act, which may be enacted in the coming months.
Employers with more than 50 employees will have 3 months to implement procedures and measures for protection of whistleblowers reporting violations of the law in more than a dozen areas.
The EU Whistleblower Protection Directive imposes an obligation to protect whistleblowers in areas such as [personal data protection, privacy, fair competition or consumer rights, among others. The latest bill of the act implementing the directive in Poland has significantly expanded this catalogue to include labour law violations, corruption, human trafficking and even human and civil liberties and rights.
This is a huge change that means a whistleblower will be able to report all violations of the broader HR law. In addition, the procedures already in place at many companies for reporting incidents of, for example, mobbing will have to be revised to comply with the "EU" whistleblower protection system. The same will apply to reports of violations of working time, occupational safety and health regulations, parental rights and any other employment-related issues. The proposed law will also strengthen the protection for whistleblowers reporting corruption cases, including conflicts of interest and abuse of power.
A whistleblower can be anyone who provides, has provided or was to provide work or services under any contract. The protection will include a prohibition on termination of contracts and deterioration of the whistleblower's working conditions, as long as the reason was the whistleblower’s report, but also a prohibition on holding the whistleblower liable on disciplinary, civil or criminal grounds for violation of trade secrets or defamation. The only condition for such protection will be the good faith of the whistleblower - that is, the belief that the report being made was genuine.
Employers need to start preparing internal policies and the organizational structure of the division that accepts reports and conducts internal investigation procedures already now. A three-month implementation period is the minimum time to establish an effective procedure and train the workforce.
