Whistleblower Protection in the Workplace

An amendment was recently made to the Protection of Employees (Exposure of Offenses, of Unethical Conduct and of Improper Administration) Law. This law aims to protect employees who expose acts of corruption in their workplaces. It enables employees who were fired or whose employment conditions were adversely changed in retaliation for their filing a grievance about an act of corruption (or for helping another employee do so) to file a claim against their employers with the labor court.

Until now, the law allowed an employee to file such a claim within one year of the date the employer took retaliatory measures against him. The amendment extends the statute of limitations period for filing a claim from one year to three years.

The amendment further prescribes that if an employee files a claim with the court pursuant to this law, the burden of proof is on the employer to demonstrate it did not violate the law. This burden of proof will apply to the employer even if two years have elapsed since the employee exposed the corruption and the employer fired the employee or adversely changed the employee’s work conditions, instead of the one-year limit set prior to the amendment.

***

We are at your service if you have any questions or require clarifications.