What is ‘Whistleblowing’?

Understanding Whistleblowing

Organisations and workplaces have to abide by laws and regulations set in place for them, but unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. This ranges from committing criminal offences to dangers in the workplace. It also includes the cover-ups of any of these offences.

The act of reporting organisational breaches of law and wrongdoing is known as ‘whistleblowing’. When reporting an offence, you should report it to your employer, unless your employer is involved in the offence. In this case, you should report the incident to an independent body. There are services available for raising your concerns about your organisation. Additionally, your organisation should have a whistleblowing policy, which you can take a copy of and seek advice from that.

How it affects you

If anybody in your workplace is acting either improper or illegally, you should report this immediately to the relevant people. If you follow procedure when reporting these actions, you are assured to not face any detrimental treatment.

You will be protected by the law if you report a criminal offence, health and safety dangers, environmental damage, a miscarriage of justice, a company breaking the law, and cover-ups.

Complaints

Whistleblowing means you are making a very serious accusation. Therefore, whistleblowing should not be confused with making a complaint. Complaints include discrimination, harassment, and bullying. If you are making a complaint, you should follow your employer’s grievance procedure.

iHASCO’s Online Whistleblowing Training

With 1 in 10 UK workers claiming that in the last two years they had witnessed some possible form of corruption, wrongdoing or malpractice it's time that more organisations adopted effective awareness training!

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