We have reported regularly on whistleblower retaliation protection developments in the United States, as recently as last week with our updated catalog of federal whistleblower protection laws. “Whistleblower” is a generic term for someone who reports alleged illegal activity to authorities. A whistleblower most commonly is an employee who alerts someone higher up to alleged wrongdoing by his or her employer.
For those employers that operate in the European Union (EU), you also need to be aware that whistleblower retaliation protection is an issue there, where EU Whistleblower Directive 2019/1937 is scheduled to become effective within each of the EU’s 27 member states by the end of this year.
Among other things, the directive mandates covered employers, including U.S. companies that do business in the EU, to institute various processes for individuals to report violations of EU law and provides protection from retaliation for those individuals who do so.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.