The purpose of the Act is:

• To facilitate disclosure and investigation of matters of serious wrong-doing in or by organisations, and
• To protect employees who make disclosures of such information about organisations.

The Act applies to both private sector and public sector organisations.

To make a disclosure under the PDA an employee must believe:

• The information related to serious wrong-doing in or by the organisation.
• The employee has reasonable grounds to believe the information is true or is likely to be so.
• The employee wants to disclose the information so that the serious wrong-doing can be investigated.
• The employee wants their disclosure to be protected.

This means that employees making disclosures under this Act are protected from civil and criminal proceedings and from any unfair action (such as dismissal or disciplinary action) as seen by an objective authority with respect to the individual’s employment.

In other words legitimate disclosures by an employee pursuant to the Act would make the employee immune from disciplinary action and/or dismissal by the employer concerned. Any such unjustified disciplinary action and/or unjustified dismissal action by the employer would provide the employee with grounds for a personal grievance action against the employer.

Note: When originally introduced into Parliament this legislation was referred to as the “Whistleblowers Protection Bill”.

To access the complete Act click here