The latest changes to the United Kingdom’s Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA), introduced by the coalition government in June, are along similar lines to other recent legislative changes in the employment sphere. They are intended to promote new employment opportunities and to dilute the legal protection afforded to employees.

The primary purpose of the law is the same as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act 2010 in the United States, namely, to encourage individuals to speak up about wrongdoing or malpractice within organizations. PIDA affords protection to whistleblowers who make a protected disclosure in the workplace from being dismissed, selected for redundancy or subjected to a detriment as a result of having made such a disclosure. The word “detriment” was widely defined to include threats, disciplinary action, loss of work or pay or damage to career prospects.

However, there are also a number of key differences between the two pieces of legislation:

  • There is no financial incentive or reward for “blowing the whistle” under PIDA, unlike the Dodd-Frank Act in the U.S., where the first person to voluntarily provide information about securities law violations to the Securities and Exchange Commission is entitled to 10 to 30 percent of the total penalties imposed if the information leads to successful enforcement action.
  • PIDA generally encourages disclosure to the worker’s employer (internal disclosure) as the primary method of whistleblowing and disclosure to certain third parties (external disclosure) only if more stringent conditions are met. Internal disclosure is not required by the Dodd-Frank Act.
  • Under PIDA, disclosures are not limited to securities law violations and can include disclosures in relation to a breach of any legal obligation, criminal offenses, miscarriages of justice, danger to the health and safety of any individual or damage to the environment.

Why Should You Be Concerned About Whistleblowing?

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