Protected Disclosure

Not every complaint qualifies. Laws in several countries use this term or the phrase public interest disclosure. They usually set out what counts as wrongdoing, such as crime, fraud, danger to health or safety, breach of a legal duty or damage to the environment, and who may report it. They also say to whom the report may go: an employer, a regulator or, in narrower cases, the media. The test often requires a reasonable belief that the information is true and that disclosure is in the public interest, as against a purely personal grievance. When the conditions are met, the person gains rights such as protection from dismissal and a route to compensation, and often confidentiality. Reports made in bad faith, or outside the conditions, may fall outside the protection.

A nurse tells the hospital's designated officer that a ward is falsifying medication records. The hospital logs the report as a protected disclosure, limits who knows her name and investigates. When her supervisor later reduces her shifts, she cites the protection. The hospital reverses the change and formally warns the supervisor.