Dutch SP introduces bill to protect whistleblowers

RNW, by Johan van der Tol,  14 May 2012

National Ombudsman Alex Brenninkmeijer

Whistleblowers: they reveal misconduct or illegal activities but they frequently end up facing serious problems themselves. The Dutch Socialist Party (SP) has introduced a bill to protect whistleblowers from the consequences of their revelations.

Dutch whistleblowers have reported fraud and misconduct in a variety of workplaces including safety issues at nuclear power plants, misconduct at employment reintegration companies, fraud and price-fixing schemes in the construction industry and substandard grenades being supplied to the military. For many, it was a thankless task and Dutch whistleblowers have been victimised, dismissed from their jobs, labelled as mentally unstable schizophrenics and political criminals. Some have even been the targets of government prosecution. Many of them have suffered from stress and it has had serious consequences for their personal lives.

Isolated

A majority of MPs in the lower house of parliament are in favour of the Socialist Party bill protecting whistleblowers from threats, retaliation, discrimination, suspension and dismissal. SP MP Ronald van Raak hopes that better protection for whistleblowers will encourage others to report misconduct or illegal activities, whether it is within a government department or within the commercial business world:

"I'm MP and it's my job to solve problems but I can only do that if I know about the problems. I think that an awful lot of potential whistleblowers, people who know about serious misconduct, are afraid to come forward. Whistleblowers have come to me and told me things but only on condition that I not do anything else with the information. There are afraid to get tangled up in the problems they've seen come up elsewhere. People become socially isolated, they lose their jobs, they end up in serious financial problems and sometimes they're even declared mentally unfit."

There is a whistleblowers’ hotline in the Netherlands and government institutions and companies also have a dedicated advice and confidentiality person who is available to hear complaints and reports on misconduct. However, the system doesn't offer enough protection to whistleblowers.

Better behaviour

The SP bill will shield whistleblowers by anchoring protections securely within the law as well as creating a new organisation, called the Whistleblowers’ Centre. The new organisation, which will fall under the office of the National Ombudsman, will be empowered to investigate cases. As soon as an employee is officially recognized as a whistleblower, they will be protected from dismissal.

National Ombudsman Alex Brenninkmeijer says the bill will change the way companies and government departments treat whistleblowers: instead of sweeping a complaint under the carpet and bullying an employee until they quit, companies will try to investigate the issue. "As ombudsman I've had quite a lot of experience with exposing dubious practices. Initially, this leads to indignation and anger and but over the long term, companies and organisations start behaving better."

Pariah

The best-known Dutch whistleblower is Paul van Buitenen: he was a member of the European Parliament for the Netherlands and the first person to speak out about the fraud, corruption and mismanagement within the European Commission. His whistle blowing led to the resignation of the entire commission. He was rewarded by being suspended, his salary was halved and he faced disciplinary action. He says he was treated like a pariah for revealing the corruption and his family also suffered from his actions. He was eventually partially rehabilitated and now he supports other whistleblowers.

There is relatively little corruption in the Netherlands but over the years, whistleblowers have shown that there is a culture of silence in the Netherlands. MP Van Raak says the new law will end that and make the Netherlands an example of transparency again.

Van Raak: "This law is unique. If we can manage to pass this law then the Netherlands will finally solve the problem of whistleblowers. We’ll no longer bear the shame of treating people like criminals and lunatics just because they're doing their civic duty. And then we’ll be an example to the rest of the world. That's true even now; lots of other countries are interested and want to know what we are doing with this bill because they want to learn from our example."

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