The Whistleblower Protection Act aims to uncover unfair and illegal practices in companies and protect the individuals who report these practices from retaliation. The German implementation of the EU Whistleblowing Directive aims to specifically ensure the protection of natural persons who report legal violations in the course of their professional activities.
The law was passed on June 2, 2023, and largely comes into force on July 2, 2023. Among other things, it obliges companies and government agencies with at least 50 employees to set up an internal reporting office. Both corporate personnel and external service providers such as suppliers are protected by the law. Employees can report legal violations via the reporting office without having to fear reprisals or retaliatory measures. Many companies now face the problem of meeting the high legal requirements for the internal reporting office. In addition, not every company has appropriately trained personnel. For this reason, companies can outsource the reporting office. With a partner like eagle lsp, you can ensure that all legal requirements are met and lawyers handle the reports.
When choosing the reporting office, whistleblowers can freely choose whether they first contact the company’s internal reporting office or an external reporting agency.
The provision of an outsourced internal reporting platform creates trust. This encourages a potential whistleblower to first approach the company internally, instead of going directly to the public.
In the event that companies do not provide an internal reporting office in time, fines of up to €50,000 can be incurred. In addition, the whistleblower may also claim damages. We therefore recommend that companies deal with this issue promptly and act accordingly.
Procedure and process: 1. Reporting Via the internal reporting office, those affected can contact the staff at eagle lsp. This can be done anonymously if desired. The report can be made verbally (by phone or voice recording) or in writing via the reporting portal.
2. Communication The whistleblower immediately receives a personal report ID and a password after reporting a hint to be able to track the report and have access to the message history. The eagle lsp team promptly sends an acknowledgment of receipt and begins processing the case.
3. Report Processing After receiving a report, the employees of the whistleblowing team check the received report. As soon as the facts have been worked out, eagle lsp sends a summary of the report to the responsible person in the company. Based on this document, it can be decided whether and which measures the company would like to take.
Effects on other laws The introduction of the Whistleblower Protection Act also affects other laws. Changes can be found, for example, in the following legal texts: – Occupational Health and Safety Act – Federal Civil Servants Act – Civil Servant Status Act – Military Act – Industrial Code – Financial Supervision Act – Money Laundering Act – Insurance Supervision Act.
Through these changes, the importance of the Whistleblower Protection Act grows across legal areas.
As of: June 2, 2023