Raiseaconcern.com

The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 provides welcome protection for employees who have a 'reasonable belief' that there is  wrongdoing afoot in the workplace. The legislation places significant responsibilities on employers, company directors and on public bodies and brings with it a whole new focus on whistleblowing in Ireland.

Existing corporate governance requirements for public limited companies already place personal responsibility on directors and senior management of such companies to have processes and procedures in place to deal with whistleblowing. Yet, despite offering protection to whistleblowers, many self administered whistleblowing schemes put in place to meet these governance requirements have only worked to a very limited extent.

According to Philip Brennan, Managing Director of Raiseaconcern.com :

“"Despite voluntary protection offered up to now by many employers and the welcome protection now offered by legislation, employees who have concerns about wrongdoing will still be nervous about raising them because they fear being found out by managers or colleagues. They fear reprisal or being labelled. Falling back on the protection of legislation, welcome though it is, should be the last resort. Instead, employers should assist employees to allay this fear. This will benefit employers and employees alike".”

Alternatives for employees

While raising issues directly with an employer may be the ideal culture to foster, the legislation provides a number of important alternatives to address the understandable fears by employees of doing so.  Rather than raising a concern directly to an employer, it provides that the employer may nominate a third party such as Raiseaconcern to whom such concerns can be raised, thus providing the opportunity to protect the identity of the employee.  In these circumstances, the concerned employee must have a reasonable belief that relevant wrongdoing is occuring.

The Minister for Public Enterprise and Reform is also empowered to make regulations prescribing persons or bodies to fill this role, presumably for public service employees.  In these circumstances, the concerned employee must have a reasonable belief in the substantial truth of the matter disclosed.

Disclosures about wrongdoing can also be made by a public servant to a Minister responsible for that public servant’s place of work.  Disclosure may also be made by a worker in the course of obtaining legal advice from a barrister or solicitor or advice from trade union official.

In all such cases, the whistleblower has the protection of the legislation where they make qualifying disclosures.

It is also be possible to claim protection for raising concerns with persons other than those just mentioned, such as to the press.  However, such disclosures will only be protected where the wrongdoing is exceptionally serious in nature.  A much higher burden of proof will exist and a number of conditions, such as exhausting all other avenues, must be satisfied.

Where an employee raises an issue directly with his or her employer, the person to whom the protected disclosure is made or referred is also required to take all reasonable steps to avoid disclosing the whistleblower’s identity. A failure to comply is actionable by the whistleblower if they suffer any loss as a result.  If, however, the employer uses the services of Raiseaconcern, this will not be an issue as they will not know the identity of the employee who made the disclosure to start with.

So, using the services of Raiseaconcern offers potential benefits to employers and their employees.

Not all disclosures are 'Protected Disclosures' under the legislation

Employer organisations may wish to encourage employees to raise concerns about certain matters that are not regarded as 'Protected Disclosures' under the legislation e.g. breach of internal Codes of Ethics, Policies or Procedures.  The employer can protect these under their internal Policy on Raising Concerns (Whistleblowing Policy).  We can provide guidance to you on this.

If you would like more information on the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 you can read our Easy Guide here, or the Act itself here.