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ARTICLE · 10 OCTOBER 2011

ECHR Strengthens Rights Of Whistleblowers

Oppenhoff
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The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) ruled by judgement dated 21 July 2011 (docket no. 28274/08) that employees who publicly disclose deficiencies within the enterprise of their employer cannot be terminated without notice.

GermanyEmployment and HR
Alexander Willemsen
Alexander Willemsen
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The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) ruled by judgement dated 21 July 2011 (docket no. 28274/08) that employees who publicly disclose deficiencies within the enterprise of their employer cannot be terminated without notice. This has strengthened the position of so-called "whistleblowers", as the arbitrary disclosure of company-internal grievances by employees has frequently been taken as a good cause ("wichtiger Grund") to date for justifying an extraordinary termination.
 
The plaintiff was an elderly care nurse and persistently notified the management of serious deficiencies in the care of the elderly patients; deficiencies which were also established by the Medizinischer Dienst der Krankenkassen (MDK), the medical review board of the statutory health insurance funds. Having repeatedly notified these grievances without achieving any improvements of the situation whatsoever, the employee then filed a complaint of fraud to the detriment of elderly care patients.

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