It took a while, but Poland and Estonia have now also implemented the European directive to protect whistleblowers. They were the last member states that had not yet done so.
The EU directive to protect whistleblowers should have been implemented by EU member states by Dec. 17, 2021. Only a few countries claim to have met that deadline. Most countries were much later. The Netherlands was no exception. One might infer that the protection of whistleblowers is not a popular issue with EU governments. A more positive approach is, it is quite complicated to get this right. It also specifies some sort of minimum protection measures, inviting member states to expand those protections. Each state has done that in a different way, which has led to quite a bit of discussion.
By spring 2024, the last two EU member states have now also enacted their whistleblower protection laws, namely Poland and Estonia.
The scope of the Polish law is quite broad. Not only may violations of EU law be reported, but also violations of national law and other unethical practices that may cause harm to the organization or to society. This makes the scope a lot broader than the Dutch law, which is already relatively broad in scope, but unfortunately also quite unclear.
As of Sept. 24, 2024, Polish organizations with more than 249 employees must have a whistleblower procedure. As of Dec. 25, this also applies to organizations of 50 or more employees. That is, according to the EU directive, some organizations must always launch a procedure regardless of the number of employees. Polish law also states in addition that there must be a procedure for handling anonymous reports.
Noteworthy is the requirement that all employees receive regular training to inform them about the procedure, rights and protection of whistleblowers. This would also be a good addition for Holland; many employees have no idea about this yet. Especially in the private sector.
Breaking the law in Poland can result in fines or imprisonment for up to three years.
It took Poland quite some time to come up with this legislation, they were even fined for being late, but now something nice seems to be in place.
Estonia, on the other hand, has opted for minimal implementation of the EU directive. Only violations of EU law may be reported, after which the reporter is protected from retaliation. One challenge here is that it is difficult for most people to ascertain whether certain national legislation has its origins in EU law.
As of Sept. 1, organizations in Estonia with more than 249 employees must have rolled out a whistleblower procedure; organizations with 50 or more employees must have done so by Jan. 1, 2025. From then on, the EU directive has been effectively implemented by all EU member states. Although the EU still identified some imperfections in the various countries, see the previous article.
We do find it unfortunate that legislation varies so much from state to state. In our view, the result is that multinationals in almost every EU country where they have more than 49 employees must roll out a local procedure under local law.
Want to learn more about the Whistleblower Protection Act? Then take our course. We also offer the course in-house and in English. Upon request, we can also address legislation in other countries in the process.
