Act on the protection of whistleblowers adopted without taking into account comments of Polish SA

An initiative of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office and the Social Team of Experts of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office

The Act on the Protection of Whistleblowers was adopted by the Polish Parliament on 14.06.2024.

In the course of legislative work, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office emphasised that the rules for the processing of whistleblowers’ personal data, as well as the data of the persons concerned, should be clarified.
In a letter to the Marshal  of the Senate of the Republic of Poland, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office highlighted concerns about the legislation adopted by the Parliament. In particular, he underlined that the Act is not consistent in shaping the rights and obligations of whistleblowers wishing to report both by name and anonymously. On the one hand, the Act allows anonymous reporting, while on the other hand, it does not contain sufficiently clear requirements related to it.

Therefore, anticipating that the applicability of the Act may give rise to serious doubts in practice, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, together with the Office’s experts and the Social Team of Experts, have taken the initiative to urgently arrange a meeting on the matter, the purpose of which will be to identify and discuss the areas that may generate the greatest interpretative doubts.

The correct interpretation of the Act's provisions in accordance with Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law will contribute to minimizing risks to the rights or freedoms of persons whose data will be processed in the process of receiving and handling whistleblowers reports (which may occur, among other things, due to the failure to take into account the comments of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office).

The meeting will be organised in the coming weeks in order to present the position of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office even before the regulations come into force. The meeting will be preceded by a collection of questions and concerns, through a form that will be available on the office's website. The meeting will be streamed online.

We will keep you informed of the findings and next steps. Please follow our website and social media.

The comments of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office On the Act on the Protection of Whistleblowers are available in the document attached below.