How to use this channel

What happens next?

1. TodayYou send your reportIt is registered immediately.
2. 7 daysYou are told it has been receivedWithin seven days at the latest.
3. 3 monthsYou receive a responseWithin three months at the latest. If the case is complex, this may be extended by three more months, and you will be told.

You will see all of this by logging in with your code and password. Check from time to time in case you are asked anything.

So that nobody finds out

You are protected

Step by step

1. You report what happened. In writing, by recording it with your voice or by asking to be received in person. You can do so without saying who you are.
2. The channel gives you a code and a password. They are the only thing that identifies you to the system. Keep them safe: they cannot be recovered.
3. The System Officer receives a notification and reads the report. Nobody else in the organisation sees it.
4. You receive an acknowledgement of receipt within seven calendar days at the latest. You will see it in your case.
5. A decision is made on whether to admit it for processing. If it is not admitted, you will be told why and where you can go.
6. It is investigated. Documents are requested, anyone who needs to be heard is heard, and the person concerned is called in, since they have the right to know what they are accused of and to give their account. Your identity is not revealed to them.
7. You receive a response. At the latest three months after you submitted it, extendable by three more if the matter is complex. If it is extended, you will be told.
8. The case is closed and entered in the register, which is what proves that the channel works.

The code and password: the most important thing on this page

When you send your report you will see a case code and a password. With these two details you can log in to see how your case is progressing, read any replies and keep adding information.

We cannot recover them. The password is stored encrypted in a way that makes it impossible to reconstruct, even for us; and if you reported anonymously, there is no other information linking you to the case.

Write them down straight away, on paper or wherever you see fit. You can download the receipt, which contains them; keep it somewhere other than your work computer.

If you lose the password, there is a way out. The case does not disappear because you are locked out: it remains open, with its deadlines running. Contact the System Officer, who can issue you a new password; the old one will stop working. You will first be asked things that only the author of the report can know (what you reported, when, where it happened, whom you named), and this is not mistrust: it is the only thing that prevents someone else from impersonating you and reading your case. If you left an email address for notifications, it will be sent there, which is safer than telling you in person.

The code is a different matter. It cannot be replaced: it is what identifies the case, and if you lose it and your report was anonymous, there is no way to get back in. If that happens, submit a new report stating that it adds to an earlier one.

How to use this channel without leaving a trace

Do not do it from company equipment or the company network. Traffic on a corporate Wi-Fi network and activity on a company computer may be logged, and they are managed by the company itself. Use your phone with mobile data, off that network.

Open a private browsing window and close it when you have finished. That way the address will not stay in your history and the session will not remain open if someone picks up your phone.

Be careful with the files you attach. A photo stores the phone model and, unless you have disabled it, where it was taken; a PDF or Word file stores the name of its author. We do not alter them, because they are evidence and changing them would spoil them. If you report anonymously and the document gives you away, your anonymity is lost that way: describe it in writing and do not attach anything.

Do not use your work email if you ask to be notified by email. That mailbox can be read by whoever administers it.

For our part: we do not record your IP address, your browser or anything about your device. The content is stored encrypted. If you report anonymously, there is nothing in the system that could lead back to you.

Frequently asked questions

Will my boss find out it was me?
Not from us. Your identity is confidential and excluded from the right of access of the person concerned: it is not disclosed to them even if they ask for it. It could only be passed on to the judicial authority, the Public Prosecutor’s Office or the competent administrative authority. And if you report anonymously, we do not have it.

Can I be dismissed for this?
Retaliation is prohibited, as are threats and attempts of retaliation: dismissal, changes to your duties, shift or position, loss of assignments, refusal of training or promotion, different treatment, damage to your reputation. If anything like this happens to you after reporting, the law presumes it to be retaliation, and it is for whoever took the measure to prove it was for another reason. Report it in your case as soon as it happens.

What if I am wrong and it turns out not to be what I thought?
That is fine. What is asked of you is to have reasonable grounds to believe that what you report is true, not to be right. Making an honest mistake is covered; knowingly making it up is not.

Can I use it if I no longer work here, or have not started yet?
Yes. Also if you are a job applicant, self-employed, a contractor, subcontractor, supplier, partner or director, and if you found out during an employment relationship that has already ended.

Do I have to provide evidence?
No. It helps, but investigating is the channel’s job. What does help a great deal is being specific: what happened, when, where and who was present.

Can I report it and never hear about it again?
You can, but it is a pity. The case is handled in the same way, although you often need to be asked something in order to continue, and if there is no way of reaching you the investigation remains incomplete.

How long does it take?
Acknowledgement of receipt: seven calendar days at most. Response: three months from when you submitted it, extendable by three more if the matter is complex. These are statutory deadlines, not promises of ours.

Who reads what I write?
The System Officer and the external law firm that manages the channel, and nobody else. It is not seen by Human Resources, your supervisor or management.

If something goes wrong

If the form will not let you send your report, if you lose access or if the deadlines pass without a response, you have the channel’s other options: request an in-person meeting, or submit it again. And if the internal channel does not work, you can go to the Independent Whistleblower Protection Authority or the competent regional authority, without losing any protection.