Whistleblowing protection: an obligation and an opportunity
Persons working in public and private organisations are key in detecting fraudulent behaviour in the context of their work environment. For safeguarding your business and allowing a speak-up culture within your organisation, a proper protection of the ‘whistleblower’ is crucial.
Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (the Directive) sets out the minimum standards for an enhanced protection of whistleblowers, in particular through protection against retaliation and claims for damages. The implementation deadline for each Member State was 17 December 2021. Almost no Member States have completed the implementation in their national law; also Belgium is still working on the implementation.
The preliminary draft bill is not yet publicly available. However, the Belgian National Labour Council issued a report on the preliminary draft bill (advies-2252.pdf (cnt-nar.be)). Our comments on this report are here.
Our team can assist you in implementing the obligations that follow from the Directive, including the duty to establish channels and procedures for internal reporting, ensuring a diligent follow-up, maintaining confidentiality, giving feedback to the whistle-blower and addressing the reported breaches.
Our offering allows you to check the boxes to properly implement the Directive and covers the full scope of the instruments and advice you require:
| Flow charts | Assistance in designing the (internal and external) procedures to deal with notifications and the protection of whistleblowers |
| Policies | Review and/or drafting of the required policies, in particular the whistleblowing policy, the ethics/compliance policy and the privacy policy |
| Implementation | Assistance and advice on the proper implementation of the relevant policies |
| Whistleblowing channel | Setting up an internal reporting channel. Lydian offers – via an European experienced software provider – a ready-to-use web portal, that meets all requirements of the Directive and Belgian law |
| Internal Investigations | Lydian assists with and advises on internal investigations, including advice on strategic, employment, privacy and white collar crime issues that frequently arise in the context of internal investigations |
| Lydian Hotline | Lydian has a 24/7/365 hotline available for immediate assistance regarding issues that arise in the context of whistleblower reports and/or internal investigations |