The Polish Act on the Protection of People Who Report Breaches of Law, known as the \u201cWhistleblower Act<\/b>\u201d regulates the procedure for reporting breaches of law (internal and external reporting) and the protection of those that report them (whistleblowers).<\/p>\n
The issue of the protection of whistleblowers, and the procedures applicable to the reporting of breaches, is addressed in EU Directive of 2019 (Directive (EU) No. 2019\/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law) (the \u201cWhistleblower Directive<\/b>\u201d). The Whistleblower Directive should have been implemented in Poland (and in the other EU Member States) by 17 December 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\nSince the bill has not been passed in Poland, at what stage is it in the legislative process?<\/h3>\n
Based on the information provided on the website of the Government Legislation Centre (RCL), the bill implementing the Whistleblower Directive is currently at the review stage. In turn, the Minister of Family and Social Policy has declared that it is currently analysing numerous comments to the whistleblower bill and it is not in a position to give an exact date when the bill will be referred to the lower house of parliament (the Sejm).\u00a0<\/p>\n
From 17 December 2021, regulations applicable to whistleblowers will refer to both employers from the public sector and employers from the private sector who employ more than 250 employees. Employers employing between 50 and 249 employees have until 17 December 2023. In turn, employers with less than 50 employees are not required to make any modifications.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The protection afforded by the Whistleblower Act covers a large group of people, including not only employees on employment contracts, but also anyone with \u201cjunk contracts\u201d, B2B, trainees and volunteers. The protection also extends to the recruitment and the post-termination periods. The Whistleblower Act protects also members of the management board and partners in partnerships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Whistleblowers Act provides specifically for the possibility of whistleblowers making anonymous reports by a following a specific process (most often internal, by creating the rules of procedure for internal reporting, including a procedure for reporting and follow-up activity).<\/p>\n
It covers also the scope of protection afforded to whistleblowers, such as non-retaliation, non-discrimination, claims for damages for the loss and the liability for disciplinary action.<\/p>\n
It also introduces specifically an obligation on employers to keep a register of internal reports, to define a path of external reporting and specifies that the central authority for external reporting is the Polish Ombudsman (Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich<\/i>) (except for any cases reserved for the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection; UOKiK<\/i>).<\/p>\nThe EU legislator has certainly provided for penalties for a failure to observe the new regulations. What penalties can we expect?<\/h3>\n
The penalties specified in the bill include: a fine, restriction of liberty or imprisonment of up to three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The punishable actions include: prevent reporting by whistleblowers, retaliating against whistleblowers, violating a whistleblower\u2019s anonymity, whistleblowers providing false information and the employer failing to implement, or failing to implement properly, the relevant procedures (internal reporting procedures).<\/p>\n