Are German Lawmakers Finally Listening to the

Whistles?
By Mark Worth on 26 March 2012 in Europe and Central Asia, European Union, People power, Whistleblowing

The following was written by Mark Worth, Transparency Internationals Whistleblower Programme
Coordinator, and Christian Humborg, Managing Director of Transparency International Germany.
In a country where whistleblowers have helped expose poor care in a nursing home, dioxin-laden
livestock feed, inadequate emergency services in hospitals, rotten meat, and mad-cow disease,
one would think and certainly hope that people who call attention to such scandals would be
completely protected from all types of retaliation.
In Germany, they are not.
Looming over Germany are two international commitments that compel the country to act. It has a
long road ahead if it wants to meet the G-20s deadline to implement whistleblower protection rules by
the end of 2012. Germany also has yet to comply with the Council of Europes Civil Law Convention
on Corruption.
http://blog.transparency.org/2012/01/18/german-nurse-shows-need-for-g20-check-up/
As the debate over whistleblower protection continues in Germany, such laws are becoming more
commonplace in all regions the world. In the past few years alone, new or strengthened
whistleblower protection legislation has been approved or proposed in many countries, including
Australia, Chile, India, Ireland, South Korea, Switzerland and the US.
Federal lawmakers have discussed strengthening protection for whistleblowers on-and-off over
the past few years. In 2008, the Christian Democrats proposed certain protections for
whistleblowers in the private sector, but the reform stalled.
On March 5, lawmakers took up the issue again at a hearing held by the Bundestags Committee
for Labour and Social Affairs. Experts invited by Germanys five main parliamentary factions
offered their opinions about whether the countrys current laws adequately protect whistleblowers
from firing, harassment and other types of retaliation.

Guido Strack is the founder of German non-profit organisation Whistleblower Netzwerk and a whistleblower
himself. His case and others will be shown in a photographic exhibition of the Whistleblower Netzwerk in the European
Parliament in Brussels, 26-29 March. Photo: Petrov Ahner

As they now stand, German laws protect public employees to some extent, and employees of
private companies theoretically have certain, narrow protections if they blow the whistle. But the
legal landscape is far from comprehensive and far from clear, as several of the experts confirmed.
Among those on the pro side was Guido Strack, founder of Germanys Whistleblower Netzwerk.
Himself a whistleblower who exposed cost overruns while working at the European Commission,
Strack said Germany needs clear legal protection so that whistleblowers can know what to
expect when they come forward.
Joining Strack was Cathy James, chief executive of the London-based whistleblower organisation
Public Concern at Work. James said the group has been instrumental in helping people come
forward under the UKs Public Interest Disclosure Act, one of the worlds premier whistleblower
protection laws.
Allaying German lawmakers concerns that a strong whistleblower law might lead employees to
immediately take their concerns to outside agencies before trying to work them out with
management, James said 95 percent of cases her group has handled over the past 10 years were
handled internally.
Though the momentum is growing throughout the world to strengthen whistleblower protection
laws, Germanys business establishment seems to be opposed to making substantive reforms.
Among them was Roland Wolf of the Federal Union of German Employers Associations (BDA).
He called a 2011 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which found that Germany
interfered with a nurses right to freedom of expression when she was fired from a nursing home for
exposing mistreatment of elderly people, strange, at the least. Wolf added that the ruling does
not mean that Germany must change its whistleblower laws. Even still, the case does send a
strong message to German employers about responding to whistleblowers.

Josef Winter of Siemens said the company is handling anti-corruption issues on its own terms
having set up a Compliance Helpdesk where violations can be reported, and by hiring an
ombudsman, an external lawyer who employees can speak to for free.
It was disappointing, however, to hear another Siemens representative, Klaus Moosmayer, cast
doubts upon the need for stronger whistleblower laws. He questioned whether they could succeed
because it would be difficult to keep a whistleblowing employee at a company after he or she had
been exposed.