On March 6, 2024, a new draft bill on whistleblowers was published on the website of the Government Legislation Centre.
EU Directive 2019/1937 of 23 October 2019 should be implemented by Poland by 17 December 2021. Despite ongoing work on the act during the previous term of office of the Sejm, it has not been adopted to date.
The most important changes in the draft include an expansion of the list of violations that can be the subject of whistleblower reports. The existing list, which covers reports related to, among others, public procurement, environmental protection, product safety, food safety, privacy and personal data protection, anti-money laundering, and terrorism financing, has been expanded to include:
- human and civil freedoms and rights,
- human trafficking,
- labor law,
- corruption.
In our opinion, this could increase the number of reports of workplace bullying and discrimination. Therefore, it's worth implementing anti-bullying and anti-discrimination procedures within the company and conducting employee training.
Another key change is the introduction of the ability to accept internal and external reports anonymously. Importantly, the bill stipulates that if a legal entity does not accept anonymous reports, the bill will not apply to such reports. The bill does not impose an obligation to accept anonymous reports.
The draft bill clarifies issues that have previously raised significant interpretation challenges regarding the estimation of the number of employees required to implement the procedure. It clarifies the method for calculating the number of 50 employees within a legal entity, which is a condition for the obligation to implement the internal reporting procedure. This obligation will apply to entities with at least 50 full-time equivalent employees as of January 1st or July 1st of a given year.
The number of 50 persons performing paid work for a legal entity includes full-time employees or persons performing paid work on a basis other than an employment relationship, provided that they do not employ other persons for this type of work, regardless of the basis of employment.
An important piece of information from the draft law is the protection afforded to whistleblowers from the moment they report or make a public disclosure. The draft law also establishes a minimum wage for whistleblowers who have been subjected to retaliatory actions (Article 14 of the Draft Law), at no less than 12 times the average wage, and introduces the right to compensation for individuals affected by retaliatory actions.
The draft law also assumes that the provisions will enter into force 3 months after the date of publication, with the exception of the provisions regarding external notifications, which will enter into force 6 months after the date of publication.
We encourage you to start working on implementing procedures for whistleblower protection.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of March 12, 2024
author/editor of the series:
