NIA pushing for incentives and longer reporting time frame to protect employees from victimisation
PROFESSOR Trevor Munroe, head of transparency watchdog group National Integrity Action (NIA), is lobbying for people to receive incentives for disclosing misconduct in the workplace under the 11-year-old whistleblower legislation, currently under-utilised.
Pointing out the severe underuse of the law to a parliamentary joint select committee which is reviewing the Protected Disclosures Act (2011), Munroe said employees have been shying away from speaking up about misconduct not only out of fear of victimisation, but due to ignorance of the law and the reporting process.
Munroe said it is time for an intense public education campaign, urging the committee to recommend that resources be provided for a comprehensive awareness building programme on the existence, purpose, and facilities for whistleblower protection.
Munroe noted that the Integrity Commission — the designated authority for reporting — had pointed out that a protected disclosures work programme was being developed, and would include the launch of a public relations campaign in 2021/22, outlining responsibility of all organisations to establish protected disclosure procedural guidelines for distribution among employees. However, he said this has yet to materialise, and urged the committee to investigate the status of this programme.
He noted that up to 10 years after the Act was passed, the commission reported that...
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