On 12 April 2022, on the website of the Government Legislation Centre, the second version of the bill on the protection of people reporting infringements of the law, implementing the EU Directive on the Protection of Whistleblowers, was published. According to the new bill:
- All "legal entities for which work is performed by at least 50 people", not only "employers", will be obliged to implement internal reporting regulations;
- The catalogue of retaliatory actions has been expanded to include mobbing and discrimination; even attempts or threats of such actions may be considered as retaliatory actions against whistleblowers;
- Consultation on internal reporting regulations is to last at least seven days but no longer than 14 days from the date of submission of the draft regulations;
- Sanctions for committing prohibited acts have been eased. Previously, failure to implement a reporting procedure was punishable by up to three years of imprisonment, now there is a fine;
- It has been specified that the methods of reporting include at least the possibility of reporting orally, on paper or electronically. It is specified that oral reports may be made by means of a recorded or unrecorded telephone line or other voice communication system, as well as through a face-to-face meeting. The way of documenting such reports is also specified;
- The time period to implement the changes has been extended from 14 days to two months, which means that:
- private entities hiring between 50 and 249 people will have until 17 December 2023 to implement the changes;
- private entities hiring more than 250 people will, in practice, have three months to implement the changes.
Please find further information on our Polish blog here.
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