New bill implementing whistleblowing directive (update)

At a glance

Update 26 March 2024:

On 8 March 2024, a new bill was published, primarily expanding the scope of legal violations that can be reported. Categories of human and civil liberties and rights, corruption, human trafficking and labour law have been added to achieve this.

The EU Whistleblower Directive is expected to finally be implemented into Polish law in the second quarter of 2024, however, it is possible that the current version of the bill will be further amended.

• The EU Whistleblower Directive is expected to finally be implemented into Polish law in the first quarter of 2024;
• On 12 January 2024, a new bill was published, proposing a change in the external reporting procedure. In the previous bill, the State Labour Inspectorate was to be the default body responsible for this procedure, but this has now been changed to the Ombudsman (Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich);
• The bill also proposes an important change for employers. They will now have one month from when the law enters into force to implement an internal reporting policy, whereas the deadline in the previous bill was 14 days;
• Work on the bill is still at the governmental stage and it has not yet been forwarded to the Sejm.

---