Pierce Group is introducing has a new whistleblower service in Trust&Heart. This will replace the existing system provided by Whistleblower Software ApS. This is an addition to existing internal reporting channels to report misconduct and irregularities. The new system will be in place from May 30, 2024, including additional local languages in Pierce Group.
Since July 2022, the Swedish Whistleblower Act (SFS 2021:890). and equivalent laws in other European countries have required companies like Pierce to put in place systems to facilitate and encourage whistleblowing and strengthen the protection of whistleblowers.
What is whistleblowing?
Whistleblowing occurs when employees (and others) in a work-related context sound the alarm about various types of misconduct in their employer’s business. These can be phenomena that are illegal, unethical or outright inappropriate.
The misconduct reported by the whistleblower shall be in the public interest. This means that there should be a greater interest than one’s own, for example not simply complaints about an individual’s own employment contract.
Definition of misconduct
Misconduct means any form of serious circumstance that may have a negative impact on Pierce and/or the business or work environment of Pierce’s employees or any other serious work-related circumstance where there may be a public interest in it coming to light.
Misconduct includes, but is not limited to, actual or suspected:
- violations of laws and regulations (whether civil or criminal)
- violations of Pierce’s policies, instructions and guidelines
- bribery and corruption
- serious risk to the life or health of individuals (such as, for example, environmental crime or widespread safety deficiencies in a workplace)
- serious deficiencies in the work environment (such as systematic bullying, discrimination or harassment); and
- other behavior that is inconsistent with Pierce’s core values.
Issues that exclusively affect the relationship between an individual and Pierce generally do not fall within the definition of misconduct. Instead, Pierce encourages such issues to be raised by individuals with their immediate manager, manager’s manager, or HR department, depending on the circumstances.
Security for whistleblowers
The regulations prohibit employers from punishing the person who raised the alarm in any way. Examples of such retaliation may include bullying, threats, dismissal, dismissal, reassignment, non-payment of wages, spreading rumours and other attempts to harm and/or influence the whistleblower. The employer may be liable for damages if such measures are carried out because of the whistleblowing.
Who can whistle blow?
The following categories of persons are encouraged to report misconduct:
- Employees (including part-time or fixed-term employees)
- Temporary agency staff (such as consultants or other independent contractors)
- Persons carrying out internships or volunteer work
- Members of the board
- Shareholders
- Business partners (for example, consultants or suppliers). Customers or clients are not included among business partners and are therefore not covered by the Whistleblowing Act.
The whistleblower service can also be used by persons who have not yet initiated a work-related relationship with Pierce, provided that the information about misconduct has been acquired during the recruitment process or through other negotiations prior to the conclusion of agreements as well as persons who belonged to one of the personal categories above and have received or obtained information about misconduct during the time in the business.
When reporting a misconduct, you must have reasonable grounds to believe that the information about the misconduct is true at the time of reporting. However, you are not required to present any evidence or the like. As long as you act in good faith, you will not face any negative consequences, even if the suspicion of a misconduct after closer investigation turns out to be erroneous.
A whistleblower service should not be used for reporting personal misconduct that only affects the person reporting and their work situation. Such misconduct is dealt with internally and is not compatible with the public interest requirement.
Examples of situations when the feature should not be used are:
- conflicts between the person reporting and another co-worker
- views on leadership
- dissatisfaction with wage setting
Although these conflicts and expressions of dissatisfaction are important to deal with, in most cases they are not of public interest and should be handled internally in the respective reporting lines or HR.
General complaints or comments on Pierce
General complaints or comments about Pierce and its operations are made directly to a manager in the local organisation, PLT, or HR Sweden by e-mail hr_sweden@piercegroup.com, telephone +46708576606.
How to whistle blow
Pierce is keen to ensure that misconduct or irregularities that have occurred in the organization, and that may harm the business or its employees, are noticed and investigated as early as possible.
We have chosen that all reports are received and investigated by the external administrator Human&heart HR AB and their whistleblower service “Trust&heart” to ensure legal certainty. The whistleblower system is used to report any type of misconduct or misconduct in the public interest.
After Human&heart has made an initial assessment of the case, authorized persons within Pierce, primarily Group HR and CEO, can also take part in the information provided in order to assess whether further investigation is needed.
A report to the whistleblower service can be made anonymously.
You can make your report in the following ways:
- Digital notification via Trust&heart: To the notification https://visselblasning.trustheart.se/pierce
- Registration by phone: +46 (0)8-82 40 00 open CET 08.00-16.00
- Registration by written letter: Human&heart, Pelle Bergs backe 3c, 791 50 Falun
You can also meet with an investigator from Human&heart to make the report. Read the information about when and how a report is made, before you make your report.
Things to consider before you make a report
You are protected against retaliation under applicable law if you report situations where you have reasonable grounds to believe that information about misconduct is truthful.
You have the right by law to remain anonymous both in relation to the person receiving your whistleblower report and to your employer. At the same time, we wish you to dare to be open with who you are so that we can best investigate what has happened.
After you submit your report
When you submit your report, a case number is created, and an investigator is assigned to your case.
- An internal compliance check is carried out to ensure that no investigator is in conflict of interest with what has been reported.
- You will receive an ID and password so that you can follow the status of the case.
- You will receive follow-up of the status of the case within seven working days. You can opt out of receiving follow-up in, for example, the case description.
- The agent may want to be in touch with you. You can have contact without revealing your identity.
If you have chosen to follow up on the case, you can log in with the information you receive when you reported a misconduct. You can then continue, if you wish, and remain anonymous to the investigator.
If you have chosen to provide contact information, the investigator may contact you to ask any questions.
Actions and consequences of notification
If there is reason to believe that misconduct or other serious situations have occurred, an investigation is ordered. The investigation means that internal or external investigators delve deeper into the report.
Investigators at Human&heart make a recommendation for continued management to the HR manager. The HR manager is responsible for Pierce’s internal whistleblower group, which also includes CFO and CEO. Pierce’s internal whistleblower group then makes an assessment of whether the case should be investigated internally or externally. If any of the people in the whistleblower group is covered by the report, the latter is excluded from the investigation.
Regardless of the type of investigation carried out, the person who reported misconduct is protected by confidentiality, as well as against retaliation and obstructive measures.
If your report is intentionally false
If you report situations that you know have not occurred or if you provide blatantly misleading information, you will not be protected under applicable law. You must also not be guilty of a crime when reporting a situation. Manifestly false or misleading reports may be the subject of investigation.
Other ways to whistle blow
External links
As an alternative to using the internal reporting procedure, you can also report misconduct directly to specially selected Swedish authorities (external reporting) without the risk of retaliation. Which authority you should report to depends on the nature of the misconduct that you are reporting on. Reporting shall be carried out using established reporting channels intended for reporting misconduct by the relevant authority.