Portugal: whistle-blower protection legislation comes into force

Law No. 93/2021, published in the Diário da República (Official Gazette) on 20 December 2021, entered into force six months later on 18 June. Under this new law, which transposes the European Directive of 23 October 2019 (c.f. article No. 11403) into Portuguese national law, any person who “publicly denounces or discloses an offence on the basis of information obtained in the course of his or her professional activity” now enjoys protection. It is therefore forbidden to carry out “acts of retaliation” against them. Companies with a minimum of 50 employees are required to establish internal reporting channels, or risk financial penalties of up to €125,000. Workers can submit complaints in writing and/or verbally either on an anonymous or a complainant identification basis. Companies then have seven days to acknowledge receipt of an alert and inform the complainant of the procedure pursuant to the alert. The new law allows for several types of whistleblowing including moral and sexual harassment, and internal and corruption offenses.