Most companies have no whistleblower policy; nearly half have had disclosures since 2017

The requirements of the new Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill, should it pass, are set to be monitored by the Workplace Relations Commission. File picture

The vast majority of private companies in Ireland have no protected disclosure policy in place, despite a new law pending which would make such whistleblower procedures a mandatory requirement.

Nearly seven in 10 companies have taken no steps to put in place a disclosure channel despite the new law, named the Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill, which is expected to pass through the Dáil ahead of its imminent summer recess.

Despite this, HR workers at just under 40% of Irish organisations have experienced whistleblowing scenarios within the past five years, according to a new survey of the sector by law firm Mason Hayes Curran.

Meanwhile, a fifth of the organisations which do have whistleblowing policies in place do not provide for the anonymity of those making the disclosures.

While whistleblowing legislation for the public sector has been in place in Ireland since 2014, the new bill is the first attempt at bringing its private counterpart up to speed in terms of protected disclosures.

“Prior to this legislation the private sector had had no obligation to have a policy in place to aid whistleblowers,” Elizabeth Ryan, a partner with MHC, said. She added that the new bill is “quite prescriptive”. 

Ms Ryan said:

The onus now will be on employers to do something about disclosure. 

She said the new law, if passed, will serve to “harmonise protection and the approach to breaches of EU law”.

Ms Ryan said that “just because someone didn’t have a policy in place doesn’t mean they didn’t deal with protected disclosures in their own manner”. She further added that it also “doesn’t mean it was problematic – because there was no onus there”.

“That doesn’t mean they were bad employers,” she said. The requirements of the new legislation, should it pass, are set to be monitored by the Workplace Relations Commission.

Ms Ryan said that any new law would make life “difficult” for employers, given if they are facing allegations with no policy in place, “it could be construed against them by the WRC”.

The new law, which has been inspired by changes to EU legislation aimed at providing common protection for whistleblowers across the EU’s 27 states, will also see public bodies required to revise their own existing policies and procedures regarding protected disclosures.

In addition, the new legislation provides for additional categories of people – including volunteers, trainees, and job candidates – who will be covered by whistleblowing protections, while the burden of proof regarding any allegations has now shifted to the employer.

Similarly, the scenarios deemed to comprise workplace penalisation have been expanded to include the withholding of training, negative performance reviews, and sending an employee for a medical or psychological assessment.