The most important steps for implementation in your company.

Soon you will have to provide your employees with an internal reporting office in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act. For companies with 250 employees, the internal reporting office is already mandatory from July 2, 2023. Before implementing a reporting system, you will need to make decisions about some important issues.

 

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

The internal reporting office according to the Whistleblower Protection Act is intended to provide your employees with a confidential way to report violations of laws or EU standards within the company. In this way, an internal reporting office that makes your employees feel taken seriously ensures that complaints do not reach the public. In this way, the internal reporting office can prevent reputational damage.

 

How to implement an internal reporting office according to the Whistleblower Protection Act

To set up an internal reporting office in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act in your company, you need to be clear about the following questions:

1. How do you implement the internal reporting office in your company?
2. With which personnel do you staff and operate the internal reporting office?
3. Can the internal reporting office be set up outside the company in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act?

 

1.How do you implement the internal reporting office according to the Whistleblower Protection Act in your company?

The Whistleblower Protection Act requires you to offer reporting channels allowing your employees to communicate information. These reporting channels of an internal reporting office should enable your employees to contact the internal reporting office in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act verbally or in text form and, if desired, also in person. It is important that employees can approach the internal reporting office confidentially, or even anonymously if they wish. For this reason, the reporting channels of the internal reporting office must be created in such a way that only the employees entrusted with operating the internal reporting office have access to the reports. A corresponding software solution can create the necessary conditions here. I will be happy to advise you on the implementation of a data protection-compliant solution for setting up an internal reporting office in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act.
The law leaves it up to you to set up your internal reporting office in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act within the company, or to have it carried out by a third party. Several companies can also jointly operate an internal reporting office in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act.

 

2.With which personnel do you staff and operate the internal reporting office in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act?

The internal reporting office under the Whistleblower Protection Act should be able to process legal challenges from many legal areas, such as criminal law, labor law, data protection, consumer protection, etc. The internal reporting office should also be able to handle information from other legal areas. As an entrepreneur, you can assign your own personnel to supervise the internal reporting office. Two requirements must be met: The person must be competent and able to perform the activity in the internal reporting office independently. As the entrepreneur, you are responsible for the expertise and must allow for further training and education within the required framework. Independent requires that the person who operates your internal reporting office in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act can make decisions without the influence of company management and colleagues. There must not be any conflicts of interest. If you have a suitable person in your company, the assignment of the internal reporting office according to the Whistleblower Protection Act will lead to an adjustment of the labour contract. This requires approval of he person in question.
Alternatively, you can also use external personnel to operate your internal whistleblower protection office, for example law firms or suitable service providers.

 

3.Can the internal whistleblower protection act reporting office also be set up outside the company?

Setting up an internal reporting office in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act can be challenging within your company. In particular, the internal reporting office ties up capacities that you urgently need for the operation of your company. For this reason, the Whistleblower Protection Act also offers the option of outsourcing the internal reporting office. In this case, a third party is responsible for the technical, organizational and content-related processing of the internal reporting office in accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act.
I can offer you a corresponding all-in-one solution for your internal reporting office according to the Whistleblower Protection Act. As a lawyer, I am familiar with various legal topics and bound to secrecy. You can find my offer here.

 

Rechtsanwalt Robert Harzewski