Whistle-blowing and the employment relations implications of the ‘Protected Disclosures Act 2014’ in the Republic of Ireland

Halpin Lisa and Dundon Tony ()
Additional contact information
Halpin Lisa: National University of Ireland, Galway, Republic of Ireland
Dundon Tony: Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

The Irish Journal of Management, 2017, vol. 36, issue 3, 221-232

Abstract: This article explores the introduction of the 2014 Protected Disclosures Act in the Republic of Ireland. It does so by using a justice theory lens to examine the potential for the Act to protect workers who may feel the need to blow the whistle on employer wrongdoings. Data is collected from public records and documents, along with interviews with senior representatives from ‘all’ the social partner agents involved in drafting or contributing to the Act. The evidence suggests that the Act may have limited utility in ensuring fairness and justice for the whistle-blower. In particular, employers appear reluctant to embrace the idea of more legal protections, while cultural stigmas attached to the idea of ‘blowing the whistle’ may inhibit people coming forward. The article contributes to justice theory and employment regulation, as well as whistle-blowing practices, and some recommendations are suggested to improve awareness of whistle-blowing rights for workers.

Keywords: whistle-blowing; justice theory; employment relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/ijm-2017-0009 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:irjman:v:36:y:2017:i:3:p:221-232:n:1002

DOI: 10.1515/ijm-2017-0009

Access Statistics for this article

The Irish Journal of Management is currently edited by Edel Conway and Jonathan Lavelle

More articles in The Irish Journal of Management from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().