The implementation of Whistleblowing Directive has been made by the newly adopted Act No. 189/2023 Coll. which amends the effective Slovak Act No. 54/2019 Coll. on Protection of Persons Reporting Anti-Social Activity and on Amendment of Certain Acts ("the newly amended Whistleblowing Act" or “Act“), which became effective as of the 1st of July 2023 and some parts of the Act became effective as of the 1st of September 2023.
Already implemented.
Basically, under the newly amended Whistleblowing Act there are two categories of anti-social activities that are reportable:
1. Anti-social activities (minimal protection):
According to the Slovak National Labour Inspectorate's interpretation this shall include e.g. unethical practices in the workplace, pathological phenomena that have a negative impact on society and are the basis for criminal activity such as aggressive behaviour, alcoholism, gambling.
2. Serious anti-social activities (very specific protection further elaborated in section L14 of this document):
The list of categories of persons is not exhaustively defined by the newly adopted Whistleblowing Act, the assessment of the nature of the relationship of the person reporting the anti-social activity will depend on a case-by-case basis, but from the text of the newly adopted Whistleblowing Act it is possible to clearly abstract a wide range of categories, e.g.:
Yes, the effective and newly amended Whistleblowing Act provides that the obliged entity shall appoint/authorise a person(s) to assess reports. The entity may also contract external provider to assess reports.
Yes. However, companies falling within the scope of the European Union acts on financial services, products and markets, transport safety and environmental protection are not subject of an exemption and they will be obliged entities without regard to number of employees.
Public authorities with more than 5 employees are obliged to designate a responsible person or contract external provider.
The Act is silent in this regard, however these kind of companies may implement this scheme voluntarily, as the Act does not exclude it.
The newly amended Whistleblowing Act sets the following time frames:
Internal assessment of the report and informing the whistleblower on the outcome of the assesment of the report within 90 days from receipt of the report.
In the case, when there is a suspicion that the crime was committed, the employer must refer the matter to the police or public prosecutor and inform the whisteblower on this fact. As soon as the employer obtains the result of the assesment from the police or the public prosecutor, whether there was a crime commited or not, he has to inThe newly amended Whistleblowing Act sets the following time frames:
Internal assessment of the report and informing the whistleblower on the outcome of the assesment of the report within 90 days from receipt of the report.
In the case, when there is a suspicion that the crime was committed, the employer must refer the matter to the police or public prosecutor and inform the whisteblower on this fact. As soon as the employer obtains the result of the assesment from the police or the public prosecutor, whether there was a crime commited or not, he has to inform the whistleblower on the result of such assesment no later than 10 days after receiving this assesment from the police or the public prosecutor.
Under the newly adopted Whistleblowing Act there is also specific timescale with regard to the acknowledgements of the receipt of the report - 7 days from receipt.
Yes, the newly amended Whistleblowing Act addresses directly the protection of anonymous whistleblowers whose identities have been exposed and provides them with the same protection as other whistleblowers.
Yes, under the newly amended Whistleblowing Act both private and public sector are obliged to accept and follow up on every report (anonymous included).
In the light of the newly amended Whistleblowing Act, the employer or other entity is required to seek permission from the Whistleblower Protection Office prior to taking any legal action that could be related to whistleblowing and would be perceived as retaliation.
Legal action taken without prior consent of the Whistleblower Protection Office is ineffective.
The whistleblower is also protected by law against possible sanctions by the employer or other entity, such as:
Since the adoption of the newly adopted Whistleblowing Act, there is an effective legal possibility to impose a financial penalty of EUR 6,000 for the practices of an employer or other entity that penalizes a whistleblower, up to a fine of EUR 12,000 in case of repeated actions.
Higher fines will be imposed for employment-related acts carried out without the prior consent of the Whistleblower Protection Office, up to a maximum of EUR 100,000.
Under the newly amended Whistleblowing Act, the legal entities (including private employers) with no more than 249 employees may share internal reporting channels.
Although neither the text of the newly amended Whistleblowing Act nor the explanatory memorandum (reasoning report) suggests that the primary purpose of the admendment is to share information within the group, it is also possible to use this mechanism as a joint reporting channel for a group of employers.
