Cambridge Analytica Changes How British Companies Handle Whistleblowing

With the Facebook data-breaching Cambridge Analytica scandal still reverberating, British companies are scrambling to set up internal reporting channels to bosses and the media under new EU recommended laws to strengthen whistleblower protection.

Britain has one of the EU’s toughest safeguard systems in place but the European Commission’s proposed legislation will require some businesses to take further steps as part of a scheme to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, including demotion or firing.

The directive now puts the burden of proof on companies instead of workers and stipulates that businesses with more than 50 employees or a turnover of more than €10 million seet up a three-tier reporting system, including internal channels, reporting to regulators and, in cases of overriding public interest, reporting to the media.

EU officials said that Britain was one of only 10 countries with sufficient whistleblower protection but said the country’s law only recommends setting up internal whistleblowing channels, the newspaper the Telegraph said earlier.

If a worker has been employed for one year or more, the employer must prove he or she was sacked for a legal reason and not for reporting wrongdoing. National governments must approve of the changes.

The bill would give EU-wide protection for whistleblowers exposing breaches of EU law covering financial services, tax, competition law, data protection, public health and other areas regulated by Brussels.

Frans Timmermans, the commission’s First Vice-President, said that, “There should be no punishment for doing the right thing,” before the measure went to the European Parliament.