Lawyer Monthly Magazine - August 2019 Edition

Why Companies Must Be Better Prepared for Whistleblowing The first call you take about a whistleblowing allegation could be from a journalist. With EU law changing the rules about exposing corruption, firms need to be better prepared and aware of what is occurring at their company. Speaking to a number of whistleblowers at a recent event in London, two things occurred to me. Firstly, those who had blown the whistle on former employers felt that their careers in that industry were effectively over. And, secondly, despite whistleblowers risking their livelihoods to expose wrongdoing, they felt that the organisations in question had not learnt from the ordeal by making a safer, simpler or more trusted system for people to come forward in the future. So, if revealing wrongdoing leaves the reputations of organisations andwhistleblowers in tatters, is there a better way? The gamechanger may have arrived. The news will have likely gone unnoticed by many, but companies need to know, and they need to be prepared. For the first time, those who seek to expose corruption, tax evasion and a range of other crimes will be protected under European Union law, under rules agreed by member states earlier this year. The new rules represent a huge shift in an area previously left to the discretion of each of the 28 EU member states – resulting in no protection at all in some countries. Companies will not be able to rely on internal red flags before allegations hit public bodies or even themedia. Lobbyingefforts to require whistleblowers to raise concerns internally first before going to a public body proved unsuccessful and were not adopted in the final agreement. Instead, proponents for stronger protections successfully argued that this would compromise the anonymity of those raising the issue of misconduct and that they should be protected against potential retaliation, whether they go first to the company or straight to a public body. What’s more, if authorities do not take the appropriate action after an initial report, whistleblowers can choose to make their allegations public, including in the press, and remain protected against reprisal under the new rules. Firms can make internal 26 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | AUG 2019 Special Feature Written By Matt Bell, Pagefield Global WWW.PAGEFIELDGLOBAL.COM “But even if organisations cannot prevent public allegations of whistleblowing, there are steps they can take to ensure any damage to their reputation is limited in the process.”