EU Whistleblowing Directive – Portugal

✅ Whistleblowers protection already in place

_• Before the introduction of the Directive

Portugal had no specific legislation regarding Whistleblowing. Some existing laws regarding for instance money laundering, witness protection, or data protection were used on a case-by-case basis.

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📖 Current implementation status

The law proposal has been approved by the Parliament on November 26th, 2021, in time for the European deadline.

Six months after its publication in the Official Journal, the law came into force on June 18th, 2022.

This makes Portugal the third country to transpose the EU Whistleblowing Directive into national law before the deadline.

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🆕 New Requirements

The new law “confers protection to the whistleblower who, in good faith, and having serious grounds to believe that the information is true, denounces or publicly discloses an offense under the terms established”.

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• Scope of application

The legislation applies to both private and public sectors, including volunteers and interns (remunerated or not).
Organisations with 50 employees and more are immediately affected by the legislation and have an obligation to set up internal reporting channels for reporting and provide follow-up within 7 days.
Its application covers all breaches in a work-related context.

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• Reporting Procedures

Organisations can make the choice to have an oral reporting option, but all reports should at least have a written version for record tracking purposes.
Clear and easily accessible information on internal and external reporting procedures to competent authorities, institutions, or bodies must be provided.
Provide an extension of protection to the Whistleblower’s family members and relatives, as well as for Facilitators (individuals assisting the whistleblower in reporting).
The confidentiality of the informant is privileged over anonymous reporting. Organisations are subject to confidentiality duty for the informant’s identity and personal data.

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