News and developments
The adoption of the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive by the Portuguese Legal System
Without prejudice to the application of other laws in which measures have already been taken to protect whistleblowers, the law under study, will cover violations with seriously damaging to the public interest, which have already occurred, are being committed or whose commitment can reasonably be expected as well as the attempt to hide such infractions, in the following areas:
- Public procurement;
- Financial services, products and markets and prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing;
- Product safety and compliance;
- Transport security;
- Protection of the environment;
- Radiation protection and nuclear safety;
- Food safety for human and animal consumption, animal health and animal welfare;
- Public health;
- Consumer defense;
- Protection of privacy and personal data and security of the network and information systems.
- Union financial interests referred to in Article 325 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU);
- Internal market rules referred to in Article 26 (2) TFEU, including competition and state aid rules, as well as rules on corporate taxation;
- Violent, especially violent and highly organized crime;
- Private sector or public sector workers;
- Service providers, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, as well as any persons acting under their supervision and direction;
- Holders of shareholdings and persons belonging to administrative or management bodies or to fiscal or supervisory bodies of legal persons, including non-executive members;
- Volunteers and interns paid or unpaid.
- The natural person who assists the whistleblower in the whistleblowing procedure and whose assistance must be confidential, including union representatives or workers' representatives;
- The third party who is connected to the whistleblower, namely a co-worker or family member, who may be the target of retaliation in a professional context; and
- Legal persons or similar entities that are owned or controlled by the whistleblower, to whom the whistleblower works or with whom he is in some way connected in a professional context.
- Mandatory and unilateral changes in working conditions, such as duties, hours, place of work and pay, or non-compliance with work duties;
- Suspension of the employment agreement;
- Negative performance evaluation or negative reference for employment purposes;
- Failure to convert a fixed-term employment contract into an open-ended contract,
- whenever the worker had legitimate expectations in this conversion;
- Non-renewal of a fixed-term employment contract;
- Dismissal;
- Inclusion in a list, based on a sector-wide agreement, which may lead to the inability of the complainant to find employment in the sector or industry concerned in the future;
- Resolution of supply or service contract;
- Application of disciplinary sanction.