The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has produced a set of guidelines to help unions agree whistleblowing procedures with employers following the enactment of stronger protections under the Protected Disclosures Act, 2014. All public bodies are now required to publish guidelines about how they will deal with protected disclosures.
The ICTU document also provides a good guide to the new legislation, which followed a long IMPACT campaign to strengthen protections for workplace whistleblowers. The new law provides a framework of protections for people who are victimised, or threatened with victimisation, for revealing illegal practices in the workplace. But workers must meet proper criteria to ensure that their revelations are covered by the protections in the Act.
Employees are now legally protected from victimisation or dismissal when they disclose a ‘reasonable belief’ of illegality to their employer or a person prescribed under the act. Employees are immune from civil and criminal legal proceedings in such cases.
The legislation also allows for external disclosure - for instance, to the media or a politician - in some cases, although there are tougher criteria to determine whether such disclosures are protected.
Importantly, IMPACT’s core demand that the law should prevent employers from sacking staff pending the outcome of a case has been met. Whistleblowers who are unfairly dismissed for making a protected disclosure can now seek a court order preventing their employer from taking them off the payroll while a case is being heard.
The maximum penalty for unfair dismissal in protected disclosure cases has also been set at five years pay - far more than the usual two years.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions says workers are best advised to talk to their union rep before making a disclosure to ensure that they proceed correctly and gain the protections of the new law.
