Managing the Protected Disclosures Process

About our Managing the Protected Disclosures Process workshop

The Protected Disclosures Act, which became law in July 2014, has been called “the strongest whistle-blower legislation in Europe”. Whistleblowing is now one of the key areas of employment law and corporate law in Ireland. The Protected Disclosures Act provides sanctions of up to five years’ earnings for dismissal or penalization for making a protected disclosure. In addition, it introduces a groundbreaking statutory right to apply to the Circuit Court to put an employee back to work before a dismissal claim is heard and a new claim in tort for detriment caused as a result of making a protected disclosure. The last 12 months has seen a number of reported decisions in the area that add to the guidance already contained in the Workplace Relations Commission Code of Practice and the Guidance from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

In addition to the legislative obligations, research provides evidence of significant organizational and individual benefits that can be achieved when organizations move from a compliance focus to creating cultures of openness and trust:

“The effect of workplace culture emerges as a key variable in determining whether employees raise concerns or stay silent when confronted with unacceptable standards of practice… and whether employees’ concerns are listened to and acted upon, or disregarded and ignored when disclosed to others”.

Studies have shown the impact of leadership and communication in creating workplace environments in which employees feel safe and supported to speak out and speak up. CIPD research also highlights the importance of best practice HR and the embedding of values in organizational behavior and it provides evidence that these factors can build cultures of trust

Jones, A (2016): ‘The Role of Employee Whistleblowing and Raising Concerns in an Organizational Learning Culture – Elusive and Laudable?’, International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 5(1) 67-69’, http://ijhpm.com
CIPD (2016): A duty to care? Evidence of the importance of organizational culture to effective governance and leadership, accessed on 23/6/17 from https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/a-duty-to-care_2016-evidence-of-the-importance-of-organisational-culture-to-effective-governance-and-leadership_tcm18-14220.pdf

Learning Outcomes

Topics for discussion will include:

Understand the Law by application
Understand lessons from recent case law and what employers must do to combat risk
Have a detailed understanding of the Act, the key areas of difficulty and developments to watch out for, and the WRC Code of Practice and DPER Guidance
Be able to advise your organisation on how best to ensure compliance with the act
Understand the impact of organisational culture – and how open cultures of trust can create a workplace environment in which employees feel safe and supported to speak up.
Understand the challenges of changing culture – and how leadership, change management and best practice HR can create and support open cultures of trust.