Mandatory protection for whistleblowers of crimes in a company

From 50 workers or 10 million euros of turnover it is mandatory to establish a whistleblower protection system for crimes within the scope of a company.

Every year, there are thousands of workers who are witnesses of some kind of irregularity at work. They can discover fraud, abuse or any other type of action that could endanger the welfare, safety or life of other people.

Too many times, employees remain silent for fear of losing their job. Others take a step forward and share the truth, risking their profession and their own well-being to do so. These workers “blow the whistle” on various types of unethical behavior that occurs in the workplace in an attempt to make a difference.

Basically, an informant is someone who reveals information that he believes is evidence of some kind of irregularity on behalf of a company; or reveal cases that may endanger the health and safety of the public in some way.

Why whistleblowers need protection?

1. According to the Eurobarometer, 81% of workers who witness or know crimes do not report them for fear of reprisals.
2. The European Union estimates that for the lack of a whistleblower protection system, 10 billion euros of corporate profits are lost every year.
3. Only 10 countries of the European Union (France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden) have a system of complete protection for whistleblowers.
4. In the Financial Sector this system is implemented in all countries of the European Union

What is this European Directive?

• Guarantees a high level of protection for whistleblowers who report violations of EU legislation.
• Establish safe channels for reporting within an organization and before public authorities.
• Protect informants against dismissals and degrading, degrading or other forms of retaliation
• Those who have knowledge of the commission of conduct that may be criminal, have the obligation to inform an internal Whistleblower Channel. Only when there is no internal Whistleblower Channel, will they be obliged to go to external (public) channels.
• Who is required to report? employees (including officials at the national / local level), volunteers and trainees, interns, non-executive members, shareholders, etc.
• The companies will have a period of three months to inform the complainant and process the complaints (with the possibility, in duly justified cases, of extending the period of up to six months for the external channels).
• A protection protocol is established for when the complainant publicly discloses information about the company.

Will the Whistleblower Protection reach the point of incentivizing and rewarding it? Will the Bounty Programs end up existing?

The “Dodd-Frank Act” of the USA, of 2010, plans to reward the whistleblower with an amount ranging between 10% and 30% of the fine (provided that it exceeds one million euros). This amount comes from the sanction that the company pays, so it does not represent an expense for the State.

To date, incentives have been distributed for an amount exceeding 100 million dollars in the framework of “bounty programs” or reward programs.

If those programs are effective in the USA and everything seems to indicate that they are, they will also become mandatory in Europe. In fact, there are already law firms, specialized in whistleblower protection. Your job is to represent whistleblowers around the world under various complaints reward programs, which include the following:

• SEC complaint rewards program;
• Complaint Compensation Program of CFTC; y
• Tax fraud from the IRS Complaint Compensation Program.

Protection laws Whistleblower in the international field

“Loyd-La Follete Act” of 1912

“Whistleblower Protection Act” 1989

“Sarbanes-Oxley Act” of 2002

“Dodd-Frank Act” of 2010,”Loi Sapin II” (France 2016)