First sentence of the Supreme Court of Cassation on the subject of whistleblowing, following the approval of the recent law 179 of 2017.
The Supreme Court of Cassation in criminal proceedings, with a ruling filed at the end of February, intervened on the figure, recently modified by the legislator of whistleblower.
The whistleblower (literally translated, “he who whistles”) is the employee, whether in the public or private sector, who reports crimes or irregularities of which he becomes aware in the context of the employment relationship.
The whistleblowing It was introduced in Italy in the public sector with Law No. 190 of 2012: "Provisions for the prevention and repression of corruption and illegality in public administration.".
Specifically, Article 1, paragraph 51, of Law No. 190/2012, in relation to Legislative Decree No. 165 of March 30, 2001, "General provisions on the organization of work within public administrations," introduced, after Article 54, a new provision, Article 54-bis, entitled "Protection of public employees who report wrongdoing.".
The law was later amended with the introduction of Law 179 of 2017.
This latest provision has again amended Article 54-bis of the Civil Service Act, establishing that an employee who reports unlawful or abusive conduct of which he or she becomes aware in the course of his or her employment to the entity's anti-corruption officer or to the ordinary judicial or accounting authority cannot be subject to sanctions, demoted, fired, transferred, or subjected to other organizational measures that negatively impact working conditions for reasons related to the report.
The same law has established that the identity of the employee who reports discriminatory acts cannot be revealed and, in the context of criminal proceedings, the report will be covered in the ways and within the terms set out in the’Article 329 of the Code of Criminal Procedure
The report is stolen to the access provided for by articles 22 and following of law 7 August 1990, n. 241, and subsequent amendments.
The Court of Cassation, which dealt with an event which occurred before the recent reform came into force, however also made express reference to the new law, establishing that the anonymity of the whistleblower it is insured (partially, however) in the disciplinary field, but not in the criminal field.
In the criminal sector, also in light of the very recent Law 179 of 2017, the ordinary rules on confidentiality set forth in Article 329 of the Code of Criminal Procedure apply, which means – in effect – that anonymity does not exist, or at least is only temporary.
The Court of Cassation has therefore endorsed the thesis according to which the anonymity of the person making the report is foreseen only in disciplinary contexts, and even in this case, any subsequent dispute must not be based exclusively on the report itself.
Because, in the latter case, the identity of the "blower" may be revealed when absolutely necessary for the defense of the accused.
However, the Supreme Court further notes that, in the event that the report is used in criminal proceedings, there is no room for anonymity.
Follow on NOVA-Il sole 24 ore
English 
Italian 