Source: legislacja.gov.pl
A new draft law to transpose the EU Directive on whistleblowing has been published. This is the sixth proposal since the original Bill was published in October 2021.
The most important amendments to the latest draft law include:
A whistleblower must have a reasonable belief that the information they are reporting relates to the public interest. This additional prerequisite for the protection of reporting persons is unclear and can be a barrier that discourages the reporting of irregularities.
The State Labour Inspectorate has been designated as the whistleblowing authority instead of an ombudsman. This is controversial because none of the areas covered by the draft law are within the competence or resources of the State Labour Inspectorate.
According to whistleblowing legal expert, Marta Kozak-Maลnicka, the draft law does not go far enough and more work needs to be done:
โThe latest version in principle does not go beyond the minimum standards set out by the Directive. However, there are a few provisions where the legislator has established higher standards of protection than the Directive (eg. personal scope). There are a lot of potential improvements to be made in the course of the legislative process. This is not the end of work on the bill transposing the directive, and further versions of the draft can be expected, however, it is difficult to predict in what direction the changes will go.โ