Source: e.dennikn.sk
The newly established Slovakian Whistleblower Protection Office, known as the ÚOO, has been quoted discussing it’s powers to protect persons reporting breaches of law in the Slovakian media claiming that it can protect individuals from both dismissal and other forms of employment detriment such as wrongful transfers. If a whistleblower has requested protection from the ÚOO, the employer needs to be granted consent to give the whistleblower notice of the employment action. Under this system, the onus is on the whistleblower to request protection prior to the employer taking any action, otherwise, the ÚOO will only suspend action against him for 30 days. It also emphasized the importance of whistleblowers reporting in a ‘timely’ manner.
Last month, the ÚOO reported that in its first month of operation it had assisted 60 reporting persons. Detailing one of the thirteen cases it handled in the month of September, it stated that in one instance, where a reporter had been threatened with disciplinary action, as management could not sufficiently prove that the response was not retaliation for the whistleblowing report, the ÚOO was able to suspend the disciplinary action.
Slovakia is yet to pass a dedicated transposition law to implement the EU Directive on Whistleblowing, which must be completed before the 17 December 2021. It is unclear whether the government thinks the current framework and legislation passed in 2019 already meets the minimum standards of the Directive. Whistleblower protection experts say that further legal reform is needed to bring Slovakia in line with the proposed EU framework.