SITRA’S REPORTING CHANNEL FOR REPORTING MISCONDUCT

The report must be submitted via Sitra’s electronic reporting service, which is linked below. Reports cannot be submitted anonymously. Reports are processed in confidentiality.

The reporting channel is only used for processing reports of misconduct covered by the Whistleblower Act (laki Euroopan unionin ja kansallisen oikeuden rikkomisesta ilmoittavien henkilöiden suojelusta, 1171/2022, or “ilmoittajansuojelulaki” in Finnish. English translation of the Act is currently not available). For example, issues related to labour law are not covered by this legislation. As such, ambiguities and disputes related to labour law and issues related to occupational safety will not be processed on this platform.

Further information for submitting a report

Requirements for submitting a report and being granted protection

You can submit a report regarding a suspicion of a misconduct which you have observed in the course of your work, duties or assignments if you are a reporting person (see 5 § of the Act) as defined by the law. Reporting persons can be employees, volunteers, trainees and independent entrepreneurs. With certain limitations, former employees and job applicants can also be considered reporting persons according to the law.

Another prerequisite for submitting a report is that the matter is within the scope of the Whistleblower Act (see 2 § of the Act). Please get to know the the scope of application of the Whistleblower Act to the best of your abilities before submitting a report. The nature of the issue will be clarified in more detail during the processing.

Reporting does not require evidence, but a mere rumour is not sufficient. The reporting person must rather have a justifiable reason to believe in the veracity of the information.

The reporting person is provided protection (see chapter 5 of the Act) in accordance with the law. The most significant protective measure is a prohibition of countermeasures when the above conditions are met. Another prerequisite for being provided protection is that the report is submitted in the first instance to Sitra’s reporting channel. A misconduct can be secondarily reported via the national reporting channel of the Chancellor of Justice only if specific legal requirements are met. This would be the case if Sitra had not made a reporting channel available to the reporting person or if Sitra did not comply with the statutory processing times or if the reporting person had justified grounds to believe that their report would not be appropriately processed by Sitra.

Processing reports

Sitra’s Legal Affairs function is responsible for the processing of the reports submitted to Sitra’s reporting channel. In accordance with the Whistleblower Act, experts and other processors may be assigned to process the data in order to establish its veracity.

Any possible conflicts of interest will be taken into account in processing reports and the processing will be outsourced to the framework agreement partners of Sitra’s legal affairs services, if necessary.

Reports are processed in confidentiality and the identity of the reporting person and other personal data included in the report will only be known by the above-mentioned limited group of people. The reporting person’s identity will not be revealed to third parties or the target of the report.

After submitting a report, the reporting person will be provided a link to the follow up page and a password required to access the page. A confirmation of receiving the report will also be sent to the reporting person’s email. An email from the follow up page will be sent to the reporting person when processing of the report is started. All communication related to the report will be carried out via the follow up page. The processors may pose questions to the whistleblower during the processing. Reports with incomplete information cannot be processed.

Investigating reports and further measures

All reports submitted via the reporting channel are investigated by persons designated from the responsible unit on a case-by-case basis. The responsible persons will carry out necessary measures to establish the veracity of the report and to intervene in the misconduct. During the processing, it will be assessed if further measures need to be taken in order to rectify the misconduct or prevent it in the future. The whistleblower will be informed within three (3) months from the delivery of the notification of reception what has been decided and what possible measures will be carried out. This information will be made available on the follow up page within the stated deadline.

Storage and archival of reports

Once a report has been processed, a summary is created and archived if the report was found to be justified. The summary is drawn up without personal data.

As a rule, Sitra retains the reports and included personal data in the reporting channel service for three (3) years after the end of the processing. In case of exceptional situations in accordance with Whistleblower Act, reports and related personal data can be stored for a longer period.

The processing of personal data related to reports is described in more detail in the privacy policy of Sitra’s reporting channel.