According to the bill, organizations with at least 50 employees must build an internal notification channel for employees, where an employee can anonymously “blow the whistle” when he reasonably suspects that the law is being violated.
whistleblower that is, reporting channels are finally coming to companies.
Prime minister Sanna Marini (sd) on Monday of last week, the government presented a bill to the parliament on the protection of persons reporting violations of European Union and national law.
The Whistleblower Protection Act implements the EU’s so-called whistleblower directive in Finland, the purpose of which is to protect persons who report violations of laws they observe in connection with their work.
Whistleblowing that is, blowing the whistle means reporting suspected violations of legislation that result in a criminal sanction or that, according to the bill, violate the public interest.
The law prohibits countermeasures against the whistleblower.
Directive was supposed to be implemented in the member states as early as December 2021, but its implementation has been delayed in several member states.
In the bill reprisals by the organization against the informant are prohibited. Violating this prohibition or preventing reporting may result in liability for damages and the obligation to pay compensation to the reporting party.
The report can also be made to a centralized reporting channel, i.e. the Office of the Chancellor of Justice, if there is no internal reporting channel, the reporting party does not have access to it, or the reporting party has a justified reason to believe that internal reporting is not effective.
According to the bill, private organizations with 50–249 employees must have such an internal reporting channel in use by December 17, 2023 at the latest.
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All tax crimes are covered by the law.
Companies employing a total of 250 people or more must implement the internal reporting channel within three months of the law coming into force.
There are currently a lot of bills to be considered in Parliament, but the Ministry of Justice hopes that the law would be approved as quickly as possible, says the negotiating official Juha Keränen.
According to Keränen, about half of the EU member states are still preparing for its national implementation.
The goal is to receive more notifications about violations of the legislation. When reports have not been dared to be made, the commission, through the directive, strives to offer even better protection to those reporting, says Keränen, who prepared the national law.
The Whistleblower Directive provides protection only to employees who have a reasonable suspicion of a violation of the law.
The target of the notification is also protected, so that false notifications cannot tarnish anyone’s reputation.
“Only designated notification handlers will be informed of the object’s name.”
As a purpose is to create effective protection for whistleblowers who notice that the employer is violating EU or Finnish regulations in e.g. public procurement, financial services, food safety or consumer protection.
The scope of the law also includes various illegalities related to EU funds and the internal market or violation of tax rules, or which result in a threat or harm to the public interest.
According to the directive, it must be possible to report abuse in such a way that the identity of the informant is protected.
All private and public sector organizations employing at least 50 employees are obliged to establish an internal notification channel, where notifications are primarily made.
Some smaller organizations in the financial sector also have such an obligation.
The directive and the national law do not apply to all industries. For example, social and health issues are largely left out of the law.
Directive the annexes list 138 EU-level regulations that are affected by the directive. In Finland, those regulations have been implemented by at least two hundred laws, depending on the method of invoicing, Keränen estimates.
So that the notifier does not have to familiarize himself with the precise areas of application of the constantly changing EU regulations, in the Finnish bill the scope of the directive has been expanded beyond its minimum level.
For example, all tax crimes are covered by the law.
“It is difficult for the whistleblower to know whether it is EU regulation. That’s why national regulation has been included,” says Keränen.
According to him, a large number of EU countries seem to work in the same way.
The bill according to the notification processing organization must be independent and competent.
An organization can decide whether to accept anonymous reports. In certain systems, the receiver and the sender of the notification can have a dialogue with each other so that the identity of the notifier remains secret.
Anonymous reports cannot be made to the official channel.
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