Whistleblowing is a hot topic these days and there have been a number of cases reaching the courts recently all around the world. In a rare instance in Japan, a whistleblowing case is heading for the Supreme Court after the plaintiff was demoted after passing a supplier’s complaints on to his employers. Blimey – hear no evil, see no evil!
The rest of the world is also seeing an increase in whistleblowing, but a survey carried out by the Federation Against Software Theft conducted recently found that 69% of respondents were unaware that they had protection under the law if they blew the whistle.
In the US meanwhile, the practice has been often used in shipping cases (especially over those oily water separator thingies), with whistleblowers getting a sizable percentage of any fines made by the court. Needless to say the benefits of this policy might be detrimental to future employment prospects, but then the fines are pretty large.
