Littler | Whistle Protect – a partnership with WhistleB

CLINT | Littler, a leading labor and employment law firm, and the Dutch arm of Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice, is pleased to announce a new partnership with WhistleB to offer clients across Europe a secure and trusted employee whistleblowing system, Littler | Whistle Protect.

Littler | Whistle Protect is a whistleblowing system developed by WhistleB and used by companies across Europe that allows employees to report suspected misconduct through a secure and user-friendly online tool. The tool provides employers with an easy way to uncover and address misconduct, as well as access to market-leading data security and privacy to ensure whistleblower anonymity and protect sensitive data. With compliance with relevant national laws and EU regulations embedded within the tool, Littler | Whistle Protect also helps companies reduce their legal risk.

For the uniform establishment of whistleblower protection, the European Union issued the so-called Whistleblowing Directive (EU) 2019/1937 in the fall of 2019. It came into force on December 16, 2019 and must be transposed into national law by EU member states no later than December 17, 2021. Under the Whistleblowing Directive, companies with more than 50 employees as well as public authorities and municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants are required to establish internal reporting channels through which violations of EU law can be reported. In addition, the Directive also provides for external reporting offices to be set up by the federal government or state governments and offers whistleblowers the right of choice as to which reporting office they approach.

The Whistleblowing Directive is to be implemented into Dutch law by the Whistleblowers Authority Act (Wet Huis voor klokkenluiders, HvK). In order to avoid contradictions and to create legal certainty for potential whistleblowers, the (speaker’s) draft of the HvK covers not only violations of EU law, but also violations of the Dutch regulations corresponding to the EU law mentioned in the Directive, such as working conditions legislation.

As firm, CLINT | Littler is committed to continuing to develop and leverage best-in-class technological solutions for its clients and is excited to add Littler | Whistle Protect to that already robust offering.

Through Littler | Whistle Protect, our clients will have access to:

• Reporting Channel: Employees can report suspected wrongdoing through a web-based landing page and questionnaire. The whistleblower can remain anonymous, and the employer can respond immediately.
• Case Management Tool: The tool securely and efficiently manages whistleblowing reports, which facilitates the receipt, monitoring and management of cases.
• Statistics and Report Generation: The dashboard provides an overview of current and historic data, status, alerts, performance indicators and in-depth analysis.