Shortly before Christmas, the government coalition is once again putting pressure on the HinSchG. After the government's draft from July, a joint draft by the traffic light parliamentary groups has been available since yesterday. This has already been passed by the legal committee today and will be finally read and decided upon in the Bundestag on Friday. This means that only the approval of the Bundesrat (upper house of the German parliament) is required before the requirements become mandatory three months after adoption.

The most significant change for the companies concerned is the obligation to set up anonymous reporting and communication channels for further communication. However, this obligation is not scheduled to come into force until 1 January 2025. However, companies that are still facing the challenge of implementing an internal reporting office should already take up this option directly. Otherwise, in addition to the initial effort for communication, there will be another one for the addition of the anonymous reporting channel. Depending on the integration into the company structure and communication strategy, training documents, the Code of Conduct or information posters, for example, would then have to be updated before 2025.

Contrary to the demands of many business representatives, the scope of application was not shortened, but supplemented by two additional points. New is the applicability to violations of the EU regulation on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and the EU directive on digital markets. Probably also due to current events, statements by civil servants that constitute a violation of the duty to be loyal to the constitution have been included in the scope of application.

Compensation for damages in the case of reprisals against the whistleblower was also tightened. Monetary compensation can now also be demanded from the whistleblower in the case of damage that is not pecuniary damage.

In practical implementation, the retention period was extended from two to three years and the digitalisation of communication was taken into account. With the whistleblower's consent, further clarification of the facts can no longer only take place via a personal meeting, but also via "video and audio transmission" - i.e. a video conference.

The addition of the priority of internal over external reporting offices takes into account the interests of the company. However, the creation of incentives to do so is seen as the task of the internal reporting office instead of clearly regulating the priority in law.

If the law is passed by the Bundestag this year, it could also pass the Bundesrat on 10 February 2023 and would thus come into force as early as early summer next year for employers with more than 249 employees. For employers with more than 49 employees, there is a transitional period of one year.

For further information, please contact:

Kristin Peitz
Head of Compliance Services
kristin.peitz@ksp.de
+49 40 450 65 1553

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