Making a protected disclosure

If you’re worried about serious wrongdoing in or by your workplace, you can report it to your workplace or an appropriate authority under the Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022 (PDA). You can report serious wrongdoing in both public and private sector workplaces. The purpose of the PDA is to help the discloser, look into serious wrongdoing in the workplace, and to protect employees and other workers who report them.

Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022 – legislation.govt.nz

The protections a discloser is entitled to are confidentiality, not retaliated against or treated less favourably, and immunity from civil, criminal and disciplinary proceedings. Further information on these protections and how they apply can be found below.

Protections – Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022 – legislation.govt.nz

Serious wrongdoing has a specific meaning under the PDA. It does not apply to all possible wrongdoing that might be going on in your workplace.  

Serious wrongdoing includes: 

• an offence, 
• a serious risk to: 
  •  public health, public safety, the health or safety of any individual, or the environment 
  • the maintenance of the law, 
• an unlawful, corrupt or irregular use of public funds or resources, or 
• oppressive, discriminatory or grossly negligent acts, or gross mismanagement by a public official. 

A report of serious wrongdoing can be made by anyone who is, or was, an employee or other worker (e.g. contractor). You can report serious wrongdoing either through your workplace’s internal protected disclosure process or to an appropriate authority. Information on the meaning of an appropriate authority can be found below.

Appropriate authorities – Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022 – legislation.govt.nz

You can make a disclosure to an appropriate authority at any time. They are a trusted external party who can be approached if you are not confident about making the disclosure within your own workplace.  

The PDA also includes examples of serious wrongdoing, and the corresponding authorities.

 Examples of concerns and appropriate authorities – Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022 – legislation.govt.nz

The Public Service Commission is an appropriate authority under the PDA and has a role to receive disclosures of serious wrongdoing about the Public Service. 

To make a protected disclosure to the Public Service Commission, email us at commission@publicservice.govt.nz.

Please give us details about the suspected serious wrongdoing and whether you have shared it with anyone else, including any action taken on it. It is also helpful to provide your contact details so that we can get in touch to discuss the matter on a confidential basis. A report can also be made anonymously if you don’t feel comfortable giving us your details. 

Within 20 working days of receiving a protected disclosure, the Public Service Commission will try to: 

1. Let you know we have received the disclosure. 
2. Consider the disclosure and whether it should be looked into. 
3. Check with you whether you have made the disclosure to anyone else, and if so, what the outcome was (if you haven’t already told us). 
4. Deal with the matter by doing one or more of the following: 
   1. Looking into the disclosure. 
   2. Addressing any serious wrongdoing by acting or recommending action. 
   3. Referring the disclosure to the workplace your disclosure relates to or to another appropriate authority (we will talk with you before doing so). 
   4. Deciding that no action is needed. 
5. Let you know what we have done (or are doing) to deal with the matter, and the reasons for our decision, noting that there may be times when we are unable to provide full details about actions, due to privacy or employment law. 

We will keep you updated throughout the process and let you know of any delays. 

The Ombudsman can provide information or guidance about the PDA. They help both individuals wanting to make a disclosure and public and private sector employers who are dealing with protected disclosures. More info can be found below.

Serious wrongdoing at work (protected disclosure) – ombudsman.parliament.nz

The Public Service Commission administers the PDA and has developed guidance on the Act which can be found below.

Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022