Lowering barriers and raising the bar
News this week on the importance of #anonymity and #whistleblower protection.
Charles Hymas in The Telegraph highlights the continuing barriers to people speaking up in organisations, following new research from Protect . Compliance officers themselves have even faced retaliation (so what hope for the rest of us? are there practical solutions? read on...)
Christopher Copper-Ind raises the case of a US whistleblower who suffered "undue hardship" before receiving a financial reward for speaking up with significant information. Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP remind us that "under the Dodd-Frank Act...whistleblowers can file anonymous claims without risking retaliation and earn rewards along the way".
Implementation of the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive in 2021 will make an important difference for people wishing to speak up and for the effectiveness of compliance programmes within organisations.
Other countries such as Australia and Iceland have already taken encouraging steps to change their laws to promote whistleblowing and to protect the men and women wishing to speak up, through non-retaliation, confidentiality and even anonymity.
Business Keeper AG #trueanonymity #whistleblowing #compliance #loweringbarriers #raisingthebar
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/21/seven-ten-whistleblowers-victimised-forced-quit-despite-laws/
https://www.internationalinvestment.net/news/4016770/whistleblower-awarded-usd700-prompting-sec-investigation
Editor, Compliance and Ethics: Ideas & Answers
4 年We should remember that in Europe the privacy regulators initially attacked company speak up systems (CNIL started this).??In Spain the privacy regulators have tried to prohibit anonymous calls.??We in the compliance & ethics community should be championing whistleblower protection, but also pushing back on misuse of privacy laws to undercut speak up systems and other compliance efforts.???
Executive Advisor & Board Consultant | HR, Legal & Compliance Expert | Contributor, Harvard Business Review | Ranked #1 Global Thought Leader in Careers & Legal | MG100 | Former CAO, CCO, CHRO
4 年Murray, thanks for highlighting such an important issue. Whistleblowing and speaking up are a hinge issue for healthy workplace culture - and democracy. It's hard enough as it is for employees to speak truth to power.
CEO iTrust | Trustee | Author | Podcasts | BBC Radio | ITV Meridian | Volunteer | Equality and Fairness |
4 年??????