On 24 June, the Whistleblower Protection Act was published in the Journal of Laws. It implements the provisions of EU Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of law into the Polish legal system. It defines the scope of obligations that employers must face, for example, in connection with the need to establish an internal reporting procedure. There is little time to prepare as this Act will come into force in September.
The Whistleblower Protection Act of 14 June 2024 was published in the Journal of Laws and in accordance with a 3-month vacatio legis, it enters into forceon 25 September 2024.
An exception is made for the provisions on external notifications, which will come into force after 6 months from the date of publishing of the Act.
According to the regulations, a whistleblower or a person who reports or discloses information about a breach of law within the scope covered by the Act, may perform:
The Whistleblower Protection Act generally applies to all entities, and some of them have specific obligations to establish an internal reporting procedure, including reporting channels:
Other entities may establish internal reporting procedures on a voluntary basis.
An internal report is information about a breach of law in a legal entity whose whistleblower is an employee or has other gainful relationships with it.
The internal reporting procedure should specify things such as:
A reporting whistleblower is protected from the moment of reporting or from the moment of public disclosure, provided that they had reasonable grounds to believe that the information provided was true and it constituted information about a breach of law.
Follow-up are all actions aimed at assessing the accuracy of the information contained in the whistleblower’s report and which consist in counteracting the breach of law being the subject of the report.
Follow-up actions are therefore actions taken in order to:
A whistleblower may report or disclose information about a breach of law, which is an act or omission that is illegal or aimed at circumventing the law, regarding:
Importantly, the Act does not apply to information:
Most of the provisions of the Whistleblower Protection Act enter into force on 25 September 2024. Until then, the entities covered by new regulations should implement appropriate procedures for reporting breaches of law in their organizations. Employers may face sanctions in the form of a fine for failure to do so.
To ensure that whistleblower protection procedures are properly implemented and channels are in place for reporting irregularities and abuses, we offer you support including:
Our offer is addressed to organizations operating in capital groups, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as non-governmental organizations, non-profit organizations and public companies.
Whistleblower protection – see how we can help!
See also the recording of our webinar: Whistleblowers – how to implement whistleblowing procedures?
Recording is in Polish.
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