A new Whistleblower Protection Act

by Łukasz Napiórkowski

26 June 2024

The Whistleblower Protection Act was published in the Journal of Laws on 24 June 2024. It introduces new requirements for, among other things, entities hiring at least 50 people. Smaller entities can also implement the solutions foreseen by this statute.

The obliged entities listed in the Whistleblower Protection Act have only three months to establish:

effective, safe, confidential or anonymous channels for reporting breaches,
procedure for reporting breaches (whistleblowing procedure),
records of reports received.

In addition to the above obligations, entities will also have to:

designate and grant written authorisations to persons responsible for receiving and verifying the breaches reported in the whistleblowing procedure,
ensure the exercise of due care and impartiality in the follow-up to the reports,
set up the data processing rules.

The whistleblowing procedure must also be consulted on with the trade union organisation or representatives of workers within 5 to 10 days, which you should take into account when planning the implementation date in your organisation.

Importantly, the legislators allow corporate groups to receive reports from whistleblowers under a single, common procedure. However this possibility is limited to receiving reports. Obliged entities will generally have to conduct investigations locally, according to the rules provided for by the Whistleblower Protection Act. Group-wide solutions will not necessarily ensure correct implementation from the point of view of the new Polish legislation.

We recommend that you take urgent action to implement a local procedure and/or check whether the existing solutions comply with the law. Are you in doubt about how to do this? You are welcome to contact us.

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Łukasz Napiórkowski

Attorney at law (Poland)

Associate Partner

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