Zákon o ochraně oznamovatelů byl vyhlášen ve Sbírce zákonů

The Whistleblower Protection Act was published in the Collection of Laws

On 20 June 2023, the long-awaited Whistleblower Protection Act was published in the Collection of Laws. The adopted Act regulates the procedure for reporting and assessing the reports of illegal acts through the internal reporting system and other legal means and ensuring the necessary protection of the whistleblower. 

The Act shall become effective on the first day of the second calendar month following its publication. The Act will therefore become effective on 1 August 2023. By that date, obliged entities are required to establish an internal reporting system and designate a competent person to ensure the functioning of the obliged entity's internal reporting system. However, there is an exception for obliged entities (other than contracting authorities) that employ between 50 and 249 employees on the date the Act become effective. These entities may establish the internal reporting system later on but not later than 15 December 2023.

The Act contains a number of new requirements and obligations that obliged entities will have to comply with. We have already informed you in more detail about the specific newly introduced obligations in our previous alert. If the obliged entity fails to comply with any of the selected obligations, it may commit an offence for which it may be fined up to CZK 1,000,000.

Since large employers and other obliged entities have less than six weeks to implement a functional internal reporting system, there is no time to wait any longer to implement the required steps.

If you would like more detailed information or assistance with setting up an internal reporting system, please contact the authors of this article or other members of the EY team with whom you work.

Authors:

Kateřina Suchanová

Samuel Týče