Stephen Millington discusses new whistleblowing legislation with CEO Magazine

Thursday, 2 May 2019

KordaMentha Forensic Partner, Stephen Millington, has made his debut in business magazine, CEO, with an opinion piece drawing attention to new legislation that aims to protect whistleblowers. As Stephen argues in the piece, Australian companies have until the end of the year to craft a fully compliant whistleblower policy — or face stiff penalties.

From July 1, legislation requiring companies to give protection to whistleblower employees comes into effect, after reforms were passed by the Australian Parliament on February 19.

Whistleblowers can sue their employer for compensation if they suffer detriment, and the Bill also extends protections to both current and former officers (including directors), contractors and suppliers, unpaid workers as well as relatives of any of these people.

As Stephen says: “...A company’s internal whistleblower policy will be no slight document either, and must detail the protections available to whistleblowers, avenues for making disclosures, how the company will support and protect whistleblowers, how the company will ensure fair treatment of employees who are mentioned in whistleblower disclosures, among other obligations."

If you are at the helm a large or public company, this has huge implications for you and your workforce.

Read the full opinion piece here:

https://www.theceomagazine.com/opinion/do-you-have-a-whistleblower-policy-from-july-1-youll-need-one/