Since the inception of the European Union’s Whistleblowing Directive in 2019, we have seen greater scrutiny of whistleblowing practices and a number of key jurisdictions beyond Europe upgrading their whistleblowing laws.
We have deep expertise in advising employers across the globe on key employment, privacy and compliance issues that arise when implementing whistleblowing policies, rolling out whistleblowing hotline systems, and handling whistleblowing-related complaints.
In Asia Pacific, towards the tail end of 2021, Australia’s corporate regulator began ramping up its review of corporations’ whistleblowing policies to check compliance with Australia’s amended Corporations Act.
In October 2021, Australia’s corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission , wrote an open letter to public companies urging them to review their whistleblowing policies to ensure they are compliant with the Corporations Act.
The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited has amended its Listing Rules, including the Corporate Governance Code , to enhance the corporate governance framework and promote good governance among issuers.
In June 2022, amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act , a law that protects employees who have reported violations of certain laws specified in the WPA, are expected to come into force.
In Europe, member states including Cyprus, Denmark, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Sweden have implemented the Directive into national law, while most remaining EU member states still have pending draft legislation in relation to the Directive, with at least six member states expected to implement their laws within the first half of 2022.
They should also carefully monitor implementation by EU Member States because there will be areas of gold-plating/divergence in local laws, as we’ve seen in the Danish and Swedish implementation.
For a fixed fee per jurisdiction, we offer jurisdiction-specific data sheets that provide answers to questions about the Directive’s scope and implementation requirements for internal procedures, protection of whistleblowers, and data privacy issues.
21,314 was published, which establishes new transparency requirements and strengthens the responsibilities of market players.
In November 2021, New York amended its whistleblower law, New York Labor Law §740.
Michael Brewer is the Managing Partner of Baker McKenzie’s California offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto and Los Angeles and Chair of the Firm’s Global Employment & Compensation Practice.
Susan Eandi is the head of Baker McKenzie’s Global Employment and Labor Law practice group for North America, and chair of the California Labor & Employment practice group.
He frequently speaks at seminars and provides in-house trainings on a wide range of employment matters, and regularly contributes to publications, books, newspapers and law journals.
Michael has more than 15 years’ experience as an employment law and industrial relations lawyer, acting for clients in a range of industries, including banking and finance, insurance, health and pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, real estate, media and entertainment, information technology and professional services.
She joined Baker McKenzie Bogotá office in 1992 as an Associate in the Labor Law department and was appointed partner on July 1st, 2000. In 2017 she was appointed as Managing Partner for Baker McKenzie Bogotá office, which made her the first woman in Colombia to hold this position in a law firm.