On 8 February 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court decided on whistleblower protections under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
The case clarifies the standards for proving retaliation against whistleblowers in publicly traded companies.
The Supreme Court clarified that whistleblowers are required to show that their protected activity contributed to the adverse employment action without the need to demonstrate retaliatory intent on the employer's part.
On 20 August 2023, the Court of Milan granted precautionary protection to a whistleblower, reinstating him in his position.
The worker had complained of economic and psycho-physical hardship for having been involved in some disciplinary proceedings following his whistleblowing on a scheme of falsification of travel documents by some colleagues.
It requires employers with more than 50 employees will have an obligation to have an internal reporting channel to which employees can report misconduct.
It transposes Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on protecting persons who report breaches of EU law (the Whistleblowing Directive).
Last March, the South Australian district court rendered the first decision under Australia's whistleblowing laws, stating that a former civil servant could not be protected for alleged wrongdoing while collecting evidence to support his revelations about the Australian Taxation Office's unethical and aggressive pursuit of debts.
The judgment that caused considerable debate in the country is based on the Court's narrow interpretation of the scope of whistleblower protections, which would apply only to whistleblowing and not to the preceding preparatory conduct.
On 21 February 2023, Spain published in the Official State Journal Law 2/2023 on protecting persons who report breaches of law and combating corruption.
It entered into force on 13 March, transposing Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of 23 October 2019, known as the Whistleblowing Directive.
Last September, Law No. 14.457/2022 introduced the “Employ + Women Program,” which sets forth a series of measures to promote the employment placement and retention of women in the labour market and actions to prevent and combat sexual harassment and other forms of violence in the workplace.
It also included the employer’s obligation to constitute a CIPA (now called “Internal Committee for Accident Prevention and Harassment”).
On 14 February 2024, the European Court of Human Rights clarified the criteria for assessing whether disclosure of confidential information obtained in the workplace is protected by freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).
It stated that the State that convicts a former employee of an auditing firm for disclosing confidential information obtained in the workplace violates Article 10 of the ECHR on freedom of expression if that information is of particular interest to the public.
The European Whistleblowing Directive has recently been transposed in the Netherlands with the Whistleblowers Protection Act, and in Italy, with Legislative Decree No. 24 of 10 March 2023.