GROUP WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY
(Public Interest Disclosures)
WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY
(including the Six “Speak Out” Protocols)
Owner
General Counsel /Company Secretary
Division
Compliance
Approved by
CEO
Version
3.0
Date Issued
June 2015
Next Review
June 2018
GROUP WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY
(Public Interest Disclosures)
1.
What is Whistleblowing?
“Aworkerraisingaconcernaboutwrongdoing,riskormalpracticewith
someoneinauthorityeitherinternallyand/orexternally”
Public Concern at Work (PCaW) definition
This policy applies not only to all permanent and short term employees, but also those
people associated with Translink by any other employment or contractual arrangement,
such as external consultants, contractors and agency staff working for or engaged by our
businesses. It is impossible to give an exhaustive list of hypothetical activities that could
cause concern, but the following kinds of early warnings are illustrative:
§
Financial malpractice, impropriety or fraud
§
Failure to comply with a legal obligation or internal procedure (e.g. use of company
travel or parking passes, abuse of annual leave or flexi-time, ignoring sign off or
approval processes)
§
Regulatory non-compliance
§
Dangers to health and safety or the environment
§
§
Criminal activity including theft or fraud
Taking or mis-selling Company assets (such as scrap metal or stationery supplies);
§
offering, taking or soliciting bribes (to act improperly);
§
§
dumping damaging material in the environment;
§
§
misreporting performance data or misusing IT equipment and systems for improper
purposes (from photocopiers to blackberries, or the safety management information
system (TSMIS);
neglect of people and passengers in our care.
Attempts to conceal any of the above.
2.
Procedure to be followed – The Speak Out Protocols
When should you speak out?
Ask yourself some simple questions about what you’ve seen or heard that troubles you.
GROUP WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY
(Public Interest Disclosures)
3.
1.
Is it, or might it be, illegal?
2.
Does it go against any company policies or the corporate governance framework?
3.
Would it damage the company’s reputation if it was reported in the media?
4.
Could it lose the company money or some of its property?
5.
Could it harm the health or safety of someone?
6.
Could it harm the environment, or the communities we work in?
Procedure to be followed – What we will do for you
•
If a whistleblowing concern has been identified, we will do the following:
First and foremost, we will accept your concerns as being made genuinely and in good
faith. This is our primary promise and safeguard to you;
•
We will consider initially what action should be taken. This may involve an internal
inquiry or a more formal investigation;
•
We will normally tell you who is handling the matter, how you can contact him/her and
whether your further assistance may be needed;
•
If you request, we will write to you within 14 days summarising your concern and
setting out how we propose to handle it. When you raise the concern you may be
asked how you think the matter might best be resolved;
•
Meetings between the employee raising the concern and the person handling the
concern and/or the investigator can take place away from business premises at the
request of either party. The employee can be accompanied to any meetings by a
fellow employee of their choice who may be a friend, colleague or a Trade Union
representative;
•
Respect your confidentiality and/or anonymity where this has been requested.
Confidentiality will not be breached unless required by law (which may be the case if a
criminal trial and first hand testimony is required);
•
Take steps to ensure that you have appropriate support and advice;
•
Agree a timetable for feedback. If this cannot be adhered to, this will be stated as soon
as possible;
•
Provide you with as much feedback as we properly can; and
GROUP WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY
(Public Interest Disclosures)
•
Take appropriate and timely action against anyone who victimises you as a direct
result of your whistleblowing.
While the purpose of this policy is to enable us to investigate possible wrongdoing and take
appropriate steps to deal with it, we will give you feedback where we can. If requested, we
will confirm our response to you in writing. Please note, however, that we may not be
able to tell you the precise action we take where this would infringe in a confidence
or jeopardise proceedings with someone else.
4.
Outside Scope – personal complaints/grievance matters
If your concern is in relation to your personal position or the conduct of others in relation to
you, you may wish to seek advice from a work colleague or line manager – not least
because this organisation places high value on having an open and supportive culture
among its workforce. There are a number of useful HR policies and procedures which may
be of much more direct relevance to your particular issue (for example policies on dignity at
work and grievance procedures contain guidance on various rights and responsibilities).
Whistleblowing is not designed to question or second-guess business decisions taken by
the Board or Executives nor should it be used to reconsider or act as a back-door appeal
against any matters which have already been addressed under other procedures.
If your concern is about possible fraud, you should refer to our Anti-Fraud and Theft Policy
and Fraud Response Plan which can be found at www.translink.co.uk
5.
Our Assurances to you – Your Protection
The Board, Group Chief Executive, Executives and Management, are fully committed to this
policy. The Company will treat your concern from first principles as one raised as a genuine
concern in good faith under this policy. We will not look to undermine or dismiss your
concern, nor shall we let others do so. Provided you are acting in good faith, it does not
matter if you are wrong.
You will not be at risk of having action taken against you by the Company for speaking out
and doing the right thing, particularly if your suspicions are backed by some indicators of
reasonable or objective evidence that you are right.
Protection under the Law – the Public Interest Disclosure (Northern Ireland) Order
1998
Legislation protects employees against dismissal, disciplinary or other penalty by their
employer as a result of disclosing certain serious concerns.
GROUP WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY
(Public Interest Disclosures)
In addition, the law protects workers who may be concerned they are breaching
confidentiality, and therefore their employment contract. Any provision in a contract or
agreement between a worker and his employer, which would prevent the worker from
making “good-faith” disclosures protected by the provisions, is void. This applies to any
agreement between the employer and worker (it might be a term in a contract of
employment or a separate agreement) including agreements settling claims under the
provisions. Translink fully acknowledges these protections.
For the latest guide as to what are protected disclosures under law in Northern Ireland, and
now this could apply to you please see the April 2014 guidance at
http://www.delni.gov.uk/public-interest-disclosure-guidance-2014.pdf
What is not protected
Misuse of this policy could result in disciplinary proceedings, especially if you:
•
make vexatious, baseless or repeat complaints about others,
•
maliciously raise a matter known to be untrue
•
purposely release commercially sensitive, confidential or legally
information which would harm or embarrass the Company or its officers.
privileged
The Company through this policy reminds all staff that these kinds of wrongly motivated
whistleblowing comments or disclosures are firmly outside of the whistleblowing context. If
your conduct is malicious or vexatious for example by pursuing a vendetta against someone
under the mask of whistleblowing, then the Company will need to explore such behaviour
and its implications with you.
6.
Anonymity
The Company will not tolerate the harassment or victimization of anyone raising a
genuine concern and, with these assurances we hope you will raise your concern openly
and let us know who you are.
Partial anonymity - We recognise that you may nonetheless want us to know who you are
but then remain anonymous after making your disclosure. We respect that. If you ask us to
protect your identity by keeping your confidence, we will make every effort not to disclose it
without your consent. You should be aware that we have reporting obligations to the
Company’s Board Audit & Risk Committee and to DRD which extend to providing
reasonable details about instances of whistleblowing. With your consent, they too can be
asked to maintain your anonymity if you so request.
If the situation arises where we are not able to resolve the concern without revealing your
identity to anyone other than DRD (for instance because your evidence is needed in court
GROUP WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY
(Public Interest Disclosures)
or for a Health & Safety Executive inquiry), we will discuss with you how best to proceed.
Total anonymity - We will not take any steps to identify an individual who raises any
concerns on an anonymous basis. However, please note that if you do not tell us who you
are then we cannot get in touch with you or give you feedback. This may then prevent our
being able to fully assist the police and courts with a prosecution (absent your evidence).
Accordingly, while we will consider anonymous reports, anonymity would not normally be
the best way for you or the Company to achieve full satisfaction about the matter.
7.
The Procedures – With whom should you raise concerns
7.1
Option One – your Boss
If you have a concern about wrongdoing, we hope you will feel able to raise it first with your
Line Manager. This may be done verbally or in writing – but we accept that in some cases,
a line manager may be part of the problem in question.
7.2
Option Two – a non-connected manager
If you feel unable to raise the matter with your Line Manager, for whatever reason, please
raise the matter with any other manager in the organisation. Please state if you want to
raise the matter in confidence so that they can make appropriate arrangements. Managers
must remember that they cannot choose to “sit tight” on a disclosure made to them
regardless of friendships, allegiances, or any other reasons. Any unreasonable delay or
prevarication would be taken by the Company as a breach of duty – it could lead to that
manager falling foul of legal rules, being subject to police questioning, or render him or her
subject to internal discipline or other proceedings.
7.3
Option Three – Independent Disclosure Officers
If your line manager or other manager has been pursued without success or are simply not
appropriate, please contact any of our selected Independent Disclosure Officers:
Our Head of Internal Audit - Confidential
Mobile No: 07739 874281
Our Company Secretary and General
Counsel (legal) on 02890 258100
Chief Finance Officer
Chief Corporate Services & HR Director
For any allegations of whistleblowing against the most senior officials in the organization
special arrangements will apply as follows:
A: for concerns raised against the Group Chief Executive, whistleblowers are invited to
GROUP WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY
(Public Interest Disclosures)
direct their concerns to the Chairman of the Board or the Chairman of the Audit & Risk
Committee.
B: for concerns raised against the Chairman of the Board, whistleblowers are invited to
direct their concerns to the Senior Independent Director or the Chairman of the Audit & Risk
Committee.
C: for concerns raised against a majority or all members of the Board, whistleblowers are
invited to direct their concerns to the Department for Regional Development, addressed to
“Translink Sponsor branch”.
7.4
Option Four – External Facing Disclosures
T h e Company recognises that certain problems are so serious or sensitive, that only an
external person will suffice.
A – Translink’s Sponsoring Government Department: The most immediate source of
external advice and assistance with knowledge and familiarity of Translink’s people,
procedures and systems is the Sponsor branch within the Department for Regional
Development.
(They
can
be
contacted
at
this
link:
http://www.drdni.gov.uk/index/contactus.htm)
B – A Specialist Whistleblowing Charity: There are a number of well-equipped bodies
which, unlike many media outlets and politicians, are specially trained in whistleblowing
and will know how to deal quickly and effectively with whistleblowing in a controlled way.
As proof of the Group’s commitment to promoting external disclosures when all other
options fail, we have r e c o u r s e t o an independent charity which will listen to you fully,
explain your options to you, and provide you with good guidance and advice.
You can contact the charity ‘Public Concern at Work’ on 0207 404 6609 or at
[email protected].
They can give you free confidential advice at any stage about
how to raise a concern about serious wrongdoing in any company in the Group. Public
Concern at Work (or, your Trade Union) will be able to advise you on such an option and
on the circumstances in which you any be able to contact an outside body.
C - Statutory Bodies selected by Government to help
In the unlikely event that Public Concern at Work cannot help you with your concern, the
Government has designated a long list of regulators, agencies, and other bodies, who can
receive eligible “whistleblows” (disclosures) in quite specialist and tightly defined
circumstances. These include the Information Commissioner (for data protection/FOI
compliance matters), DOE (for environmental compliance matters) and DETI (for consumer
protection compliance matters). More details can be found in s u p p l e m e n t a r y
legislation, the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Persons) Order (Northern Ireland)
GROUP WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY
(Public Interest Disclosures)
1999: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/1999/401/contents/made
8.
If you are dissatisfied
While we cannot guarantee that we will respond to all matters in the way that you might
wish, we will do our very best to handle the matter fairly and properly. If you are unhappy
with our response, remember you can go to Public Concern at Work and the other bodies
above.
GROUP WHISTLEBLOWING POLICY
(Public Interest Disclosures)
Annex A: Whistleblowing Decision Tree