The internal channel allowing your employees and third parties to anonymously report possible violations, protecting them from any retaliation.
The Spanish government has approved a draft law protecting whistleblowers derived from the EU Whistleblowers Protection Directive.
From its entry into force on March 13, 2023, the regulation obliges companies with more than 50 workers, public administrations and municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants to implement an internal information channel that guarantees confidentiality so that any citizen can report possible infractions without fearing reprisals; their non-compliance can be sanctioned for up to 1 million euros.
The law's main objective is to protect those who report corrupt practices, fraud or any violation of national or European laws by establishing protected communication channels and prohibiting any retaliation against them.
Thanks to the collaboration agreement between INFORMA and EQS Group, international RegTech supplier, leader in corporate compliance and investor relations, we provide you with the preferred whistleblowing channel in Europe.
The EQS Whistleblower Channel is a secure and anonymous software that allows your employees and third parties to report internally any offence such as misconduct, corruption, abuse of power and discrimination. It promotes information internal management before it becomes public and, in severe cases, leads to financial and reputational losses. Protects employees, reduces costs and minimises risks.
With an internal Whistleblower Channel:
It is an internal channel that allows your employees and third parties to internally report any potential offence, to whom appropriate confidentiality and privacy measures will be applied, protecting them from any retaliation.
It is a terminology question. The European Directive mentions the term "whistleblowing channel". The Spanish Whistleblower Protection Act prefers to call it an "internal reporting system".
In any case, there are also other terms to refer to this new channel: internal reporting channel, ethical channel, whistleblower channel, etc.
If the measures established by law to protect whistleblowers are not implemented, companies will receive financial penalties ranging from fines of up to €600,000 for serious sanctions such as, for example, not having an internal whistleblowing channel, to very serious sanctions of up to €1,000,000, such as, for example, not complying with the whistleblower's confidentiality right.
No, email is not a valid Whistleblowing Channel, it does not meet the requirements of the Spanish Whistleblower Protection Act.
