Whistle Blowing

Whistle Blowing in the Workplace

Whistle blowing occurs when someone discloses information about a business, that may be in the public’s interest, to the media or authorities because it is believed to be harmful. A whistle blowing legislation has been implemented in order to encourage employees to report any wrong doings of a company and to prosecute the corporate wrong doers.

Bill C-25 is specially implemented for federal public sector workers and crown corporation employees. It requires all federal organizations to institute an internal disclosure program that requires a code of conduct and protection for the employee. There are five steps to implementing Bill C-25:

1. Each minister or chief executive officer in the federal public sector must institute an internal disclosure mechanism

2. Appoint a public sector integrity commissioner

3. Commissioner is able to investigate any alleged wrong doings and make recommendations to chief executive or deputy heads

4. Commissioner reports to Parliament

5. Commissioner is able to report to minister of department or board when the head or chief executive officer is not responsive to the recommendations

There are a few criticisms of Bill C-25; first, the reporting process is not truly independent because the commissioner does not report directly to parliament. Secondly, it does a disservice to public service workers who whistle blow because they have to report the problem to the same government and lastly, employees have to report any wrong doings internally before going to a third party.

One of the clear and distinct objectives of whistle blowing is to encourage employees to bring ethical and legal allegations to the internal authority in order to minimize the damage. Such practices are in favour of the firms not only from an extrinsic perspective but financial as well, the sooner it is caught and dealt with, less damage occurs. However, this can often be at a great cost to the employee doing the whistle blowing....