The Whistleblowing Act

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Law Firm: Eurofast
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Privacy, Health & Safety, Data Protection, Whistleblowing
• Author: Mr Pantelis Papadopoulos
• Published date: 22 August 2023

Eurofast would like to draw your attention to a new mandatory procedure that you might need to implement in your Bulgarian company. We are going to share with you a brief description of the procedure and requirements with an emphasis on the deadline that must be met.

In Issue No. 11 of the "State Gazette", the Law adopted by the National Assembly for the protection of whistleblowers or publicly disclosing information on violations was promulgated. It introduces the requirements of Directive 2019/1937 (the so-called Whistleblower Directive),

Application of the Law

The law entered into force on 4^th of May 2023, and applies to:

1. Employers in the private sector employing more than 50 employees and must have implemented the procedure until the 17^th of December 2023.
2. Employers in the private sector, regardless of the number of their workers or employees, if the activity carried out by them falls within the scope of the acts of the European Union referred below:
3. Breaches of the Bulgarian legislation or acts of the European Union in the areas of:

(a) public procurement;

(b) financial services, products and markets, and prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing;

(c) safety and compliance of products;

(d) transport safety;

(e) protection of the environment;

(f) radiation protection and nuclear safety;

(g) food and feed safety, animal health and welfare;

(h) public health;

(i) consumer protection;

(j) respect for privacy and protection of personal data;

(k) security of network and information systems;

• Where the sector-specific acts of the European Union provide for specific rules on reporting of breaches, the rules laid down in those acts or national provisions for the relevant rules shall apply

This Act shall apply as far as the matter is not necessarily regulated in the relevant sector-specific acts and national provisions and must be declared until the 17^th of December 2023 too.

The purpose of the Whistleblowing rules is to ensure the protection of persons in the...