Employees unaware of whistleblowing legislation

Recent research has found that over 75% of office workers in the UK wouldn't report malpractice in their workplace. The research also found that 69% of respondents did not know that whistleblowing legislation existed to protect them if they were to make a qualifying disclosure of wrongdoing.

 

Other key findings of the research by the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) include:

 

• Around 76% of respondents would not report the use of illegal software, even if they were aware their employer had a policy against such use.
• Of this sample,13% stated that they would not report illicit use to protect their jobs; 22% because they did not wish to be seen as a whistleblower and 46% because they simply did not care.
• Of the 24% who would report misuse, half of them cited their belief in ‘good practice’ as the reason they made a report, while a further 31% felt it was correct to stay within the law.

 

Julian Heathcote Hobbins, General Counsel, FAST, stated:

 

“What is revealed by this research is a pretty depressing picture not only for the software industry contributing to our economic success and providing employment in, but across many other content driven sectors such as music, film and games. Not only are workers seemingly completely unaware of their rights in the workplace when it comes to doing the right thing, the worrying message that is coming out of this research is that ‘we do not care’.“