Croatia Enacts Whistleblower Protection Act

Croatian employers have until the end of this year to partially comply with the recently enacted Act on the Protection of Whistleblowers (Zakon o zaatiti prijavitelja nepravilnosti; "Whistleblower Protection Act"), with which they must come into full compliance by March 2020. The Whistleblower Protection Act defines who will be deemed a whistleblower and enjoy protection for whistleblowing. In contrast, the current whistleblower provisions are scattered throughout a number of laws, such as the Criminal Code, the Trade Act, the Employment Act and others. Consequently, research conducted in 2017 has shown that around 60 % of Croatian examinees do not know how to report corruption.

The Whistleblower Protection Act follows Recommendation CM/Rec(2014)7 of the Committee of Ministers.