The Whistleblower Protection Act comes into force on 02.07.2023! Depending on the size of the company, companies or public bodies must set up and operate a so-called internal reporting office from next month, but no later than December 2023. The obligation does not apply to companies with fewer than 50 employees, but it would still be beneficial for these companies to set one up. Non-compliance or failure to set up a reporting office is subject to a fine.
A characteristic feature of the internal reporting office is that it guarantees the receipt of reports from employees about possible breaches of the law in connection with their professional activities. The range of reportable violations is wide. The reporting office must receive such reports by telephone, in text form (e-mail) and, if necessary, even in a personal meeting, treat them in strict confidence, evaluate them and forward them to the relevant contact person in the company or authority for further clarification. The reporting office must then maintain further contact with the whistleblower and report on any measures taken. Finally, the reporting office is responsible for properly documenting all processes and retaining them for the statutory retention period.
The internal reporting office can be operated by the company's own employees or outsourced to an external service provider. If the reporting office is staffed internally, however, there are considerable additional challenges in order to ensure independence, anonymity and, last but not least, the prevention of potential conflicts of interest between the reporting office and the whistleblower. In this respect, more far-reaching measures may be required, both technically and organizationally, to ensure that operations comply with the law. Finally, the reporting office must also have sufficient expertise to be able to assess incoming reports.
In order to ensure that the internal reporting office operates in accordance with legal requirements without additional organizational burdens for the company, we generally recommend outsourcing to an external service provider. We would like to explain this to you in more detail.
We, and in particular our partner Dr. Wolff, will be happy to provide you with advice and assistance on all questions relating to the Whistleblower Protection Act or the operation of the internal reporting office. Dr. Wolff is a data protection and compliance expert and can report on all aspects of the Whistleblower Protection Act. Dr. Wolff also offers webinars in which he presents the topic in a compact 20-minute presentation and offers the opportunity for a subsequent discussion. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Wolff's office at inna.lehmann@bmz-recht.de to register for your free participation.