Whistleblowing

Nowadays, the trend towards a surveillance culture plays a central and inescapable role, even within companies. The European Union law, the national law, the public pressure and the principles of good governance require that employees and other stakeholders have the means to internally express their concerns about potential frauds, irregularities or illegal practices which have come to their knowledge. It is mandatory that organizations create formal and informal channels for such communication, which shall comply with security and confidentiality standards, and may even imply the creation of proper internal structures.

In view of the entry into force of the Whistleblower Protection legislation, it is crucial that public and private entities adopt solid compliance systems, in order to ensure the effective and safe attainment of the legal objectives, and to reduce the financial, reputational and litigation risks.

Although the legal obligations related to Whistleblowing are cross-sectional, covering all sectors, and being particularly important in competition-related matters, they raise specific concerns in areas such as financial services and money laundering, public procurement, transport safety, food safety, environment, public health, consumer protection, privacy and personal data, criminality and other breaches affecting the European internal market (such as competition, public aid and corporate tax law).

The requirements associated to this new legal framework vary according to the size of the companies and the nature of the risks to which they are exposed. For this reason, SÉRVULO offers an integrated but also individualized approach, to effectively respond to the specific demands of each client and sector.  

The Whistleblowing service includes legal assistance in the following areas:

• Establishment of internal whistleblowing systems and policies
• Follow-up and handling of complaints and investigations
• Adaptation of internal policies in place, namely the compliance and risk management policies
• Employee training and preparation of codes of conduct and codes of ethics

For this purpose, the Whistleblowing service has a multidisciplinary and business-oriented team, composed by the following areas: European and Competition (Miguel Gorjão-Henriques and Alberto Saavedra), Litigation and Compliance (Ana Brito Camacho), Finance & Governance (Patrícia Costa Gomes), Employment Law (Rita Canas da Silva), Privacy and Personal Data Protection (Ana Rita Paínho and Inês Sá), and Public Law (Paula Bordalo Faustino). The team consists of professionals with extensive knowledge and wide experience, focused on providing all the assistance needed on the development of strategies aiming the full compliance with the new legal obligations.