What Is Required For Effective Whistleblower Protection?

What is required for effective whistleblower protection? WhistleB's Karin Henriksson is interviewed in Financierworldwide.com

When it comes to efficient whistleblower protection, how can regulatory and corporate actions move the world a step closer to effective protection from retaliation? This was the topic of a feature article on Financierworldwide.com today, for which WhistleB's Karin Henriksson was interviewed, alongside a range of other whistleblowing and business ethics experts.

Whistleblowing laws need to be stricter

The article begins by highlighting a number of legislative developments on whistleblowing that are underway, including those we are seeing here in Europe, as well as others in Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada.

At WhistleB, we see the proposed European Commission standards to guarantee a high level of protection for whistleblowers that report breaches of EU law, as a big step forward. Adequate whistleblower protection is lacking in many European states today. Unless potential whistleblowers know that they are protected from dismissal, demotion and other forms of retaliation by an employer, they will not come forward. What's more, our experience has shown that in countries where whistleblower protection is stronger, there is also an urge within organisations to set up a whistleblowing system as a means of internal reporting.

Whistleblowers need to be encouraged within companies

The article is also very clear that there is a lot that organisations can and must be doing too. As we always say, it starts with the culture within the organisation. Leaders must convince employees that it is safe to speak up. They can do this through policies, training, banning retaliation and taking action when suspicions of inappropriate conduct are reported by a...