The Belgian whistleblower law obligates companies with 50 or more employees to provide a channel for reporting malpractices and fraud related to certain matters of European or national law. This law originated from Belgian transposition of the European Whistleblower Directive. In response to this legislation, Trixxo has implemented the following measures to provide a legally mandated reporting point for our clients and partners.
What can you report?
In accordance with the whistleblower law, you can report breaches or matters which, in good faith, are believed to constitute a breach in the following areas:
- Public procurement;
- Financial services, products, and markets, prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing;
- Product safety and product conformity;
- Transport safety;
- Environmental protection;
- Radiation protection and nuclear safety;
- Food and feed safety, animal health, and animal welfare;Public health;
- Consumer protection;
- Protection of privacy and personal data, and security of network and information systems;
- Combating tax fraud;
- Combating social fraud;
- Breaches harming the financial interests of the European Union;
- Breaches related to the internal market (competition and state aid, corporate taxation, or schemes aimed at obtaining unjust tax advantages).
When submitting a report, the reporter must always act in good faith, and the report must be based entirely on reasonable grounds. Behaviors of reporters who misuse the channel and deliberately spread false information fall under the crimes of slander and defamation, punishable by imprisonment for up to one year. This channel is not for reporting personal complaints or interpersonal conflicts.
Who can make a report?
Anyone who, within the scope of a work relationship, obtains information about breaches as mentioned above, can make a report. The limitation to work-related context does not apply to breaches in the areas of financial services, products, and markets, and national security. Thus, the possibility of reporting extends beyond Trixxo's employees alone. For example, think of applicants, former employees, contractors, consultants, or suppliers.
How to report?
If you wish to report a suspicion or observation of a breach of the above regulations, you can do so anonymously via the following link: meldpunt.trixxo.be.
You will be notified of receipt within 7 days of receiving the report.
Within a reasonable period and no later than three months after receipt of the acknowledgment of receipt of the report, the reporting manager will inform you of the status of the investigation.
Additionally, you can also make external reports to the competent authorities as mentioned in the Royal Decree of January 22, 2023 (NL: https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/eli/besluit/2023/01/22/2023040158/justel – FR: https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi_loi/change_lg.pl?language=fr&la=F&cn=2023012201&table_name=loi), or to the Integrity Center of the Federal Ombudsman, which is the federal coordinator for external reports from the private sector (www.federaalombudsman.be/en/centre-for-integrity/whistleblowers).
The procedures to be followed to submit a report and the modalities for processing a report via an external channel can be consulted on the websites of the mentioned authorities and the Integrity Center of the Federal Ombudsman.
Protection
When you report a breach, you are protected under certain conditions against reprisals in the broadest sense of the term. This includes protection against dismissal, but also suspension, demotion, refusal of promotion, harassment or exclusion, discrimination or adverse treatment, early termination or termination of a contract for the supply of goods or services, etc.
Confidentiality
Each received report is always treated with the utmost confidentiality and in compliance with the applicable regulations regarding privacy and data protection. Your identity is always protected in accordance with applicable regulations. Your identity may not be disclosed to others without free and explicit consent, including authorized personnel. This also applies to any other information from which the identity of the reporter can be directly or indirectly inferred.