Delphi June 27, 2016 - Sweden New legislation for the protection of whistleblowers – how will your company handle a whistleblower? by Josefine Wir A whistleblower is a person who raises the alarm or reports
wrongdoing within their organisation. The Swedish Government is now proposing
new legislation with the purpose of enhancing the protection of whistleblowers,
to come into effect on January 1, 2017. Rebecka Thörn and Josefine Wir
summarise the main points of the proposed legislation and give some advice on
how your company can handle alarms raised by employees. It is in the interests of the employer as well as the
employee and the company or organisation that conduct harmful to the business
comes to light and can be handled. However, research shows that many people
refrain from raising the alarm because of fear of reprisals. This is one of the
factors leading to the proposed legislation, consisting of a new law (hereinafter
the “whistleblower act”) protecting whistleblowers from reprisals from the
employer, as well as an amendment to the act on public disclosure and
confidentiality under which the principal rule will be that a duty of
confidentiality will apply to whistleblower cases. Meaning and implication of the proposed legislation The whistleblower act distinguishes between internal and
external alarms. Internal alarms are those directed to the employer or a
representative of the employer, for example a senior manager, as well as alarms
communicated through the employer´s internal whistleblowing system. External
alarms are alarms directed to an authority or disclosure of information to the
public. In the case of internal alarms it is proposed that concrete suspicions on
the part of the person raising the alarm are sufficient for the enhanced
protection to take effect. External alarms are to have higher requirements
regarding the accuracy of the information provided, namely that the person
raising the alarm has factual grounds for her allegation of serious wrongdoing.
According to the proposed law, it is also, as a main rule, required that the
employer first raises the alarm internally and gives the employer an
opportunity to rectify the wrongdoing in question before the employee is
entitled to raise the alarm externally. Read full article at: http://www.delphi.se/$-1/file/nyhetsbrev/2016/1606-rebecka-thorn-josefine-wir-new-legislation-for-the-protection-of-whistleblowers-how-will-your-company-handle-a-whistleblower.pdf |