Cultural Attitudes To Whistleblowing: Austria

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Law Firm: lus Laboris
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Whistleblowing
• Author: Ius Laboris
• Published date: 10 January 2023

The upcoming implementation of the EU Whistleblowing Directive is a good occasion to take a closer look at the cultural implications of whistleblowing in Austria.

Whistleblowing is the report of grievances or punishable acts in companies or organisations. In the currently discussed draft law to implement the EU Whistleblower Directive, whistleblowers are called 'Hinweisgeber' (informant) because many may associate the word whistleblower with someone who 'tells' on a person and not an informant who detects serious issues.

Currently organisations are not legally requied to establish a whistleblowing system except credit institutions. However, larger companies usually set up such systems voluntarily as part of their compliance management system since an internal whistleblowing system mitigates the risk of employees using external channels. There are also several regulations including the Austrian Banking Act, the Austrian Stock Exchange Act, the Austrian Trade, Commerce, and Industry Regulations Act or the Austrian Competition Act, that provide rules regarding the establishment of independent and anonymous systems for the reporting violations of the law. In 2018 the Austrian Federal Competition Authority established a web-based whistleblower system where possible violations against the Austrian antitrust law can be reported anonymously. The Authority can also ask further questions regarding the anonymous report and the whistleblower can answer them anonymously. The Austrian Financial Market Authority has had a similar system since 2014 and the Austrian Public Prosecutor Office against Corruption since 2016.

So far, the new EU Whistleblower Directive has not been implemented in Austria. At the time of writing, there is a proposal from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs under review and likely to be finalised by the end of the year.

Being a whistleblower: is it worth it?

Austrian law currently barely provides for specific protection for whistleblowers so they are at risk of employment law consequences, possible violation of banking Sometimes a person who points out mismanagement or grievances especially in their own organisation may initially face mistrust and be considered to wants to gain a personal benefit by exposing another person. Threats of lawsuits against the media and also specifically against individual journalists associated with whistleblowing are increasing. So-called SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits against Public...