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The Whistleblower Protection Act implements an EU directive that regulates the protection of persons who have obtained information about wrongdoing or violations in the course of their professional activities and pass this information on to the internal or external reporting office.
Employees are often the first to notice abuses. They can be uncovered, investigated, prosecuted and prevented by providing concrete information. This explicitly involves violations of European Union law.
Whistleblowers assume responsibility for society, which is why they must be protected from the disadvantages they could face as a result of their report. This protection of whistleblowers is also intended to prevent deterrence through fear.
Basically, “whistleblowing” or a whistleblower means an employee who reports grievances (actual or alleged) regarding occupational health and safety in the company to his or her employer or a third party.
The law will apply to companies and organizations in the public and private sectors with 50 or more employees or annual sales of more than 10 million euros.
Whistleblowers only harm companies if they go directly to the public or the media. Through an internal reporting office, the company is protected, compliance is helped and possible wrongdoings can be uncovered.
Since observations are transmitted directly to the responsible department in the company, grievances can be identified and rectified at an early stage. Major damage to the company’s reputation can be avoided because the risk of scandals is reduced.
Benefits at a glance:
The law will apply to companies and organizations in the public and private sectors with 50 or more employees or annual sales of more than 10 million euros.
The Whistleblower Protection Act focuses on better protection of whistleblowers (Whistleblower Protection Act, HinSchG). The aim is to protect persons who report observed violations in connection with their professional activities and to regulate the reporting of violations and their investigation by companies more transparently.
A three-year retention period (Section 11 (5) HinSchG) applies for equal treatment under civil law’s regular statute of limitations.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act in Germany defines “whistleblowing” as a “right of complaint” in Section 17, as well as how to deal with complaints. The primacy of “internal whistleblowing” states that, only if the employer fails to act on a whistleblowing complaint from an employee about a grievance, the employee may turn to the competent supervisory authority.
Occupational health and safety also involve “double action” because the employer must fulfill the occupational health and safety obligations, and the occupational health and safety authorities must ensure that these are complied with and implemented.
Each report is checked for plausibility and validity, and the necessary investigations must be carried out under strict confidentiality or anonymity.
The information received is processed fairly and quickly, followed by the derivation and implementation of measures to prevent similar misconduct in the future.
What are typical reports?
The Whistleblower Protection Act will come into force three months after its promulgation in the Federal Law Gazette. The exact date of entry into force is not yet known.
The law states that anonymous reports must be processed, so the possibility of anonymous communication between the person making the report and the reporting office must also be guaranteed.
Strictly speaking, the obligations in the law to implement anonymous reports will not take effect until January 01, 2025 (Section 42 (2) HinSchG), according to the transitional provision, in order to revise the whistleblower protection systems accordingly.
Our tip: It is advisable to make the internal reporting office as attractive as possible and to enable anonymous reports directly in order to avoid reports to external reporting offices and thus authorities.
An extended claim for damages arises. With the new law, whistleblowers who suffer reprisals now also have a claim to compensation for immaterial damages and no longer just financial damages.
In concrete terms, this means that in individual cases, compensation for pain and suffering can also be claimed for immaterial damages. This is particularly relevant in cases of mobbing or discrimination, when the damage to legal assets is usually difficult to prove (Section 37 (1) HinSchG).
Avoid tips to authorities and external reporting bodies through an attractive whistleblower system in your company. HWData already supports you with a whistleblower system software to establish a secure communication channel in your corporation.
We offer our clients the establishment and operation of the legally required internal whistleblower system and the comprehensive support of all resulting processes and reports.
Our all-in-one tech approach ensures that there is no additional work for you in terms of hosting, maintenance or the issue of data security. In cooperation with the HWLP Legal-Tech approach of our partner company, you also benefit from automated processes in the context of creating and adapting the necessary legal documentation and contracts.
Feel free to email or call us if we can assist you with your data protection or whistleblower system needs. From Legal as a Service to external data protection officer, we are there for you. You can also find more information on our website.
