EU Whistleblowing Directive – Finland

✅ Whistleblowers protection already in place

There is no specific whistleblowing law in Finland. Protection of reporting persons only rely on administrative and labour laws.

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📖 Current implementation status

The Ministry of Justice announced, on 19 September 2022, that the Government had passed its proposal to transpose the Directive on the Protection of Persons who Report Breaches of Union Law (Directive (EU) 2019/1937) (‘the Whistleblowing Directive’) into national legislation to Parliament.

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🆕 New Requirements

• Scope of Protection

In addition to implementing the minimum standards provided by the Whistleblowing Directive, the proposal outlines that protection under its provisions will also apply to whistleblowers who report anonymously but are later identified.

The protections exist not only for current employees, but also for job applicants, supporters of whistleblowers and journalists.

The bill also offers protections to the target of the report in order to prevent unnecessary damage to the reputation of the target.

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• Reporting obligations

The receipt of the report shall be confirmed within 7 days. The feedback shall be provided within 3 months after that.

An organisation may decide to accept anonymous notifications in the internal Whistleblowing System. Accordingly, this option is voluntary.
For external reporting, i.e. reporting to competent public authorities, anonymous reporting is not allowed (except certain authorities, e.g., competition authorities).

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• Foreign whistleblowing systems and global organisations

A foreign Whistleblowing System can be operated, e.g., if the system and its operations are outsourced and/or operated jointly by a group of companies.

However, the system and its operations shall fulfil the requirements of the Whistleblowing Act, i.e. in addition to those requirements which are based on the laws of the other jurisdiction where the system has been set up.

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• Next deadlines for Organisations

Companies with 50–249 employees must introduce an internal channel that enables the anonymous reporting of misconduct by 17 December 2023. Companies with 250 or more employees must introduce such a channel within three months of the act passing. The obligation to set up the channel will also apply to certain smaller organisations in the financial sector.

Whistleblowers who do not have access to such a channel or who have good reason to believe the internal report would be ineffective can also submit their reports to the office of the Chancellor or Justice.