Many employers wonder whether the whistleblower reporting obligation changes this year. The honest answer is that the core obligation itself — a reporting channel, a procedure and the two deadlines for acknowledgement of receipt and feedback — has already applied in most EU Member States for some time and is not reviewed every year. What can change, however, are the details around it: an additional regulation in a Member State, a court ruling that clarifies something, or a separate legislative proposal that touches on another subject, such as the one on the confidant.
For an employer, this means there are two things to distinguish. On the one hand, there is the basic obligation from the EU Directive, which has now been incorporated into the national legislation of the Member States and is reasonably stable there. On the other hand, there are separate developments that have to do with integrity in the workplace, but do not automatically change the reporting scheme itself. If you want to know whether something specific changes for your own organisation, it is best to check that per subject rather than on the basis of a general feeling that something is "coming up".
What is currently stable
The threshold of fifty employees, the obligation to have a reporting channel and the two statutory deadlines come directly from the EU Directive and its national implementation. These are not rules that a Member State simply adjusts at any arbitrary time. Changes to them are usually announced well in advance, and they make their way through legislative processes that take months to years. For the day-to-day practice of an SME, it is therefore not necessary to constantly wait for a major change of course.
That said, there can be movement on certain aspects. There are sometimes separate processes at national level that affect workplace integrity without rewriting the reporting scheme itself. An example of this is the legislative proposal on the confidant, which addresses a different subject than the reporting channel for breaches of law, but does have a point of contact with it in practice. If you want to follow that process, it is best to consult the relevant content page on that subject rather than assume that it automatically affects the existing reporting scheme.
Why "this year" does not automatically mean "new obligation"
Some of the uncertainty among employers stems from reporting that suggests something is "coming", without making clear what exactly and for whom. That is understandable: a legislative proposal usually goes through several phases, from consultation to parliamentary proceedings, before it actually comes into force. In the meantime, the existing reporting obligation usually does not change. It is therefore more useful to look at what is already established in the statutory text than to anticipate something that has not yet been adopted.
It is also relevant that rules can differ in details per Member State, even though the EU Directive is the common basis. A change being discussed in one country does not automatically apply in another country as well. For an organisation with locations in multiple EU countries, it is therefore useful to check per country what is happening, rather than assuming that a development proceeds the same way everywhere.
How to keep track without becoming a lawyer yourself
Most employers have no need to follow legislative processes on a daily basis. What does help is a fixed place where the status of each subject has been researched and can be traced back to the official text. In the knowledge base where each subject is developed you will find the short answer per topic and the reference in the official source, so that you can read for yourself where an explanation is based.
If you are unsure whether the reporting obligation applies to your organization, or if you doubt whether a previous assessment is still correct, the free check that provides an indication in a few questions is a logical starting point. For concrete doubts about a specific situation, it is also advisable to the overview of frequently asked questions consult expert guidance, or ask a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority how a change affects your organization. Signalo itself does not assess situations and does not provide legal advice; we structure the reporting scheme and monitor the timeframes that follow from the regulations.
What you can do now
Even if nothing significant changes this year, it is worthwhile to check whether the existing reporting scheme is still up to date: is the correct handler listed, are the timeframes correct, and do employees know where to go. This is work that is separate from any legislative changes and that many organizations should review anyway. You can read more about how we proceed and where our information comes from on the page that explains where the information comes from.
Do you want to know exactly where your organization stands, without having to figure out which rules have changed when? Do the free check or browse through the knowledge base; both can be consulted without an account and will give you a concrete picture in a few minutes.