The new EU Whistleblowing law. Should you be worried?

17th December marked the date that the EU Whistleblowing Directive came into effect. As the new whistleblowing law impacts all EU organisations with over 50 employees, you may be wondering if you’ve missed a crucial deadline.

The answer is yes. And also, no! Let us explain.

The Whistleblowing Directive requires all organisations in the EU with over 50 employees to implement a secure reporting channel where employees and other relevant stakeholders can disclose wrongdoing safely.

Organisations with between 50 to 249 employees, have until 17^th December 2023 to implement a reporting channel.

For employers with over 250 employees, municipalities with other 10,000 inhabitants, and companies of any size that provide financial services or are at risk of money laundering, the deadline has passed!

But, (yes here is the but), the 17^th December deadline was for when EU member states had to transpose the Whistleblowing Directive into national law. These national laws, as a minimum, must require organisations to implement secure reporting channels as just mentioned above.

However, only a couple of member states actually transposed the law by the deadline. And none of these imposed a deadline for organisations of any size to comply by 17^th December 2021.

So, this is the part where you haven’t entirely missed the deadline, but it does mean that one is still looming.

Reading tip: What does the new whistleblower law mean to you?

New whistleblowing laws

The new national whistleblowing laws that have been adopted, or are in a later phase, indicate stricter sanctions that go beyond the minimum requirements of the EU Directive. Please see ‚National Whistleblowing laws in the EU‚ to learn more.

To see what the current situation is in your country and if there is a new deadline date, take a look at our EU Whistleblowing Directive update.

It’s therefore recommended that organisations take preparatory steps now, such as implementing a compliant whistleblowing system, to meet the Directive’s minimum requirements. This way the organisation will be in a strong position to comply with local whistleblowing legislation as and when it is finalised.

If you’d like to know more about the Directive or how Whistlelink will get you ready to comply with the whistleblowing law, please contact us. Your local Territory Manager will be happy to talk!