A template for procedures for employees to report violations of law or other reprehensible conduct in companies majority-owned by private entities is available here.
‘Internal whistleblowing’: when an employee, acting in good faith and believing that a breach of legal obligations or other reprehensible misconduct has taken place in the employer’s operations, reports information or passes on materials to a person within the entity or to a public surveillance authorities.
‘External whistleblowing’: when an employee, acting in good faith and believing that a breach of legal obligations or other reprehensible misconduct has taken place in the employer’s operations, reports information or passes on materials to a party outside the entity, e.g. to the media. External whistleblowing is not normally permitted unless all opportunities for internal whistleblowing have first been exhausted.
‘In good faith’: this means that the employee has good reason to consider that the information or materials shared are correct, that it is in the public interest to share them and that he or she has no alternative method of preventing the breach of legal obligations or the misconduct involved.
‘Reprehensible misconduct’: conduct which jeopardises the public interest, e.g. conduct which threatens people’s health or security, or that of the environment, without constituting an evident breach of legal obligations.
‘Employee’ means, for the purpose of these rules, a person who, due to his or her position, has access to information or materials referring to his or her employer’s activities by virtue of working for the employer by engagement or temporary or permanent appointment to a position, or as an independent contractor, member of the board, trainee, temporary worker or volunteer. The employee shall enjoy protection under the Protection of Whistleblowers Act, No. 40/2020, after termination of this role.
Employees of [XXXXXXXX ehf./hf.] may, acting in good faith and believing that a breach of legal obligations or other reprehensible misconduct has taken place in the company’s operations, report information or pass on materials to a person within the company who is able to take steps to have such conduct stopped or to respond to the illegal or reprehensible misconduct, or to the police authorities or other appropriate public surveillance authorities, e.g. the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the Auditor-General or the Administration of Occupational Safety and Health.
Whistleblowers may report the matter to their immediate superiors. [Here it shall be stated how reports of misconduct or violations of legal obligations are to be handled within the company and who is to receive such reports.]
The person who receives the information or materials shall be obliged to take steps to have the illegal or reprehensible misconduct stopped, or to respond to the situation in some other way.
The person who receives the information or materials shall inform the whistleblower whether they resulted in any action being taken, and if so, what action was taken. [1]
The person who receives the information or materials shall treat in confidence all personal data regarding the identity of the whistleblower unless the latter gives his or her unequivocal consent to having his or her identity revealed.
An employee who has passed on information or materials without this leading to a satisfactory response within the company may, acting in good faith, share the information or materials in question with external parties, including the media, as long as the employee has just reason to believe that the conduct in question is of a type that could be punishable by imprisonment.
In very exceptional cases when, for valid reasons, it would be out of the question to proceed as described above, the information may be passed to external parties without any internal whistleblowing having first taken place.
The condition for this is that the sharing of the information is regarded as involving such important public interests that the interests of the employer or of other persons must give way to having the information brought to the notice of an external party,
for example so as to protect:
The security of the state, or the national interest in the sphere of defence,
Important national economic interests,
Human health,
The environment.
[1] It would be sensible to state a time limit here so that the employee will not interpret delay as meaning that his or her call for action has been rejected.
Providing that the conditions of the Protection of Whistleblowers Act, No. 40/2020, are met, the divulging of information or sharing of materials shall not be regarded as a violation of any non-disclosure undertaking or confidentiality obligation by which the employee is bound by law or in other ways. Divulging or sharing information of this type shall not result in the imposition of criminal or tortious liability on the person concerned and cannot result in administrative sanctions or encumbering consequences under labour law.
Employees who have divulged information or shared materials under the Protection of Whistleblowers Act may not be subjected to unjust treatment. Treatment of this type includes, e.g., reduction of entitlements, changing working conditions to the employee’s disadvantage, terminating employment contracts, cancelling employment contracts or making the whistleblower suffer for his or her actions in another manner. Violation of this provision may lead to punishment by fines or up to two years’ imprisonment.
If a dispute is brought to court over the position of an employee regarding whether or not the divulging of information or sharing of material was lawful, or because the employee has been subjected to unlawful treatment after the incident, the employee shall be granted legal aid (representation, free of charge) in the district court, Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Legal aid shall be cancelled if it is demonstrated in court that the employee was not acting in good faith when divulging the information or sharing the materials.
Service provider
Administration of Occupational Safety and Health