Whistleblowing – introduction

Jillian Naylor, partner in our Employment and Incentives practice, talks about our Listen Up! Campaign.

In today’s world, enabling employees and stakeholders to safely voice concerns through formal and informal channels – and having the infrastructure in place to hear and deal with those concerns – is a cornerstone of good governance and is at the heart of a healthy and open culture.

Covid-19 has created its own set of challenges: there is emerging evidence of an increase in whistleblowing reports made by employees during the pandemic. These include reports directly related to the pandemic eg. allegations of abuses of the furlough scheme and exposing employees to unsafe working conditions contrary to government guidance. There is also anecdotal evidence that employees away from their normal workplace have felt emboldened to make reports about a range of other issues, from suspicions of fraud or financial wrongdoing to allegations of harassment.

Employers are now faced with the challenges of responding to the reports, treating employees who have come forward fairly, and where necessary, conducting internal investigations in the novel circumstances created by lockdown and social distancing conditions.

Meeting your training needs

Linklaters Employment and Incentives team offers training and seminars focussed to your needs. These can be short bite-size updates, stand-alone presentations or longer interactive seminars with a more in-depth look at whistleblowing/reporting.

See our range of training materials.