The whistleblower of serious anti-social activity could receive protection if the notification directly concerns the employer. This follows from the draft amendment to the Act on the Protection of Whistleblowers of Anti-Social Activities, which was submitted to the National Council (NR) of the Slovak Republic by Hlas-SD deputies.
They claim that the employer’s rights are currently “significantly” restricted when providing whistleblower protection. They suggest that the whistleblower should receive protection in the event that his report is related to serious anti-social activity of a person with whom he is or was in an employment relationship or in another similar relationship.
“On the basis of practical experience from the application of the law to date, it is necessary to clearly express legislatively that the protection according to section 7 should be enjoyed only by such a notification, from which there is an obvious material connection with the activity of the employer,” wrote Hlasu-SD deputies. Otherwise, according to them, the employer would be restricted in its rights due to the potential anti-social activity of another person, “which the whistleblower learned about in connection with his employment relationship or another similar relationship, but does not directly concern the employer”.
Paragraph 7 of the law states that the employer can take a legal action or issue a decision in the employment relationship against the protected whistleblower to which he did not give his consent, only with the consent of the Whistleblower Protection Office.
According to the submitters, the addition of the material relationship condition does not affect the basic definition of the notifier, notification and qualified notification. “That means that if necessary, the whistleblower can also be protected when submitting a report that has no direct material connection with the employer, however, not according to section 7 of the law, but by other means of legal protection,” they stated in the explanatory report. The proponents propose that the amendment take effect from March 1, 2026.
