CPD POINTS:
3 CPD Points

DURATION:
Half day, 9am to 1pm

COST:
€295

REFRESHMENTS:
Tea and Coffee on arrival and at mid-morning break.

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 penalisation for making a protected disclosure. In addition, it introduces a ground breaking 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 organisational and individual benefits that can be achieved when organisations 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”.[i]

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 organisational behaviour and it provides evidence that these factors can build cultures of trust[ii].


[i] 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

[ii] CIPD (2016): A duty to care? Evidence of the importance of organisational 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


  • 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.

Upcoming Dates


Did you know?


PAI offer all of our courses as In-House programmes. For more information, see our page on In-House Training.