Employee representation consent abroad: what is different?
If your organization has facilities in multiple EU countries, the question of whether employee representation must consent to the reporting arrangement is not regulated the same way everywhere. The Netherlands has works councils with a statutory right of approval for a whistleblower scheme. Other EU countries have their own employee representation bodies, with their own names, their own thresholds, and their own powers. Whether consent is required there, and from whom, therefore varies by country.
The short answer is: you cannot assume Dutch rules apply to a facility in another country. The EU directive on which the reporting arrangement is based leaves the regulation of employee representation to the member states. France, Germany, and Belgium, for example, all have a form of employee representation, but with different thresholds for when it is mandatory and different rules about what requires approval and what does not.
Why this differs by country
The underlying EU directive requires organizations to have a reporting channel and a procedure, but does not prescribe how employee representation must be involved. This was deliberately left to the member states, as with many other aspects of labor law and employee representation law. The result is that the Dutch works council with its right of approval is a specifically Dutch implementation, not an EU standard.
In practice, this means that an organization with facilities in, for example, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain must separately determine for each of those countries what body exists there, whether that body has approval rights, consultation rights, or only information rights, and within what timeframe that process runs. That information also changes from country to country, because national legislation is amended independently.
What this means for the reporting arrangement itself
If you use one central reporting arrangement for the entire organization, you may need to put that arrangement through a different employee representation process in each country before it can apply there. This affects not only the approval itself, but also the pace at which you can implement the arrangement per facility. An arrangement that has already been established in the Netherlands may require its own separate process at another facility.
In addition, it also varies by country who is actually responsible for maintaining contact with employee representation: sometimes that is a local HR department, sometimes a central function. That is not a legal question but a practical one, and it is worth clarifying that in advance for each facility.
What you can inquire about locally
Because the differences are embedded in national legislation by country, the most reliable way is to have each facility separately determine which employee representation body applies and what its authority is regarding a reporting arrangement. A lawyer familiar with the labor law of the country in question can answer that most concretely. For initial guidance, the knowledge base with country-specific information can be a starting point, with a brief explanation per topic and a reference to the official text.
It is also useful to map out in advance in which countries you are active and with how many employees, so you know which facilities may need their own separate process. With a few questions you can immediately see an indication of where your organization stands, though the precise details for each country remain something to confirm locally.
One platform, multiple countries
For organizations active in multiple EU countries, it is practical if one platform provides the foundation: the same reporting channel, the same deadline monitoring, but with room for the differences that necessarily exist by country. On the page where you can see where the information comes from read how we monitor those country-specific differences and where the sources are located.
If you have questions about how this applies to your specific situation, a lawyer or the competent authority in the relevant country is the right party to assess that. If you first want a general overview, take the free quick-scan or read the other topics in the knowledge base.