Whistleblower channel

The whistleblowing must refer to irregularities in which there is a public interest in them being resolved. The information must therefore concern the public and not the reporting person’s own working or employment conditions. Conditions that concern an individual may in some cases be of general interest if, for example, they are repeated or systematic violations that can be considered unacceptable from a broader societal perspective. Violations of internal regulations such as codes of conduct may in some cases be of general interest.

Whistleblowing may also refer to violations of certain EU rules and Swedish rules that implement or supplement the EU rules. The EU rules covered are listed in Annex 1 to Directive (EU) 2019/1936 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons reporting infringements of Union law, which is available here.

The reporting person does not need to have actual evidence, as reasonable concerns or suspicions are sufficient.

The reporting channels should not be used for:

• General expressions of dissatisfaction. Such matters must be communicated to the immediate manager or the HR function. 
• Reporting of security protection classified information in accordance with the Protection Security Act (2018: 585) or other information concerning national security.

The persons protected by the Whistleblower Act are persons with a so-called work-related context to the business. These are employees or other persons who in one way or another are active in or in connection with the business where the malpractice occurs. It also includes part-time employees, jobseekers and people who have terminated their employment. The reporting person indicates affiliation to the group of persons in connection with reporting.

The protection entails a prohibition for Stafsjö’s to a) prevent or attempt to prevent reporting and to take b) reprisals due to reporting. The protection also consists in c) freedom from liability and the right to damages in case of violation of the prohibitions.

1. Preventive action may consist of the business operator offering a benefit to someone not to consult with their workers’ organisation.
2. Retaliation is, for example, dismissal, non-promotion, changed work tasks, changed workplace, salary reduction and changed working hours.
3. Protection in the form of discharge means that anyone who, by blowing a whistle according to the law, violates a duty of confidentiality, cannot be held liable for having violated the duty of confidentiality.

For protection in the form of discharge, it is required that the reporting person had reasonable grounds to assume that the reporting of precisely the information that was covered by the duty of confidentiality was necessary to reveal the misconduct.

Discharge is not granted in the event of intentional breach of such a duty of confidentiality which according to the Secrecy Act (OSL) restricts the right to disclose and publish information under the Freedom of the Press Act (TF) or the Freedom of Expression Act (YGL), so-called qualified duty of confidentiality, or breach of duty of confidentiality according to the Defence Inventions Act (1971: 1078).

Discharge is also not granted when a reporting person discloses documents. Discharge, on the other hand, applies if the reporting person orally or otherwise reports information from a document without disclosing the document.

If the reporting person commits a crime by obtaining information, the person is not protected. Crimes that can typically be committed in connection with theft are theft, unlawful intrusion, data intrusion, espionage or an unauthorized position with secret information.

Stafsjö’s internal reporting channel is a secure system provided by the Stafsjö independent party KPMG AB (“KPMG”). KPMG’s Whistleblower Service is completely independent of Stafsjö´s intranet and external website and can receive reports around the clock.

The reporting person may choose to report anonymously or to appear with their personal information. No account registration is required to make a report, but it further facilitates the investigation of the case and / or follow-up of the status of the case. To ensure the anonymity of the reporting person, KPMG AB does not save IP addresses or other metadata. The system also protects the report and any information about the person or persons whose identity appears in the report.

1. A report is submitted by the person who wants to report filling in an electronic form in KPMG’s Whistleblower Service. Reporting can also be done via voicemail: 077-140 16 20. Via KPMG’s Whistleblower Service or voicemail solution, the reporting person can also request to report during a face-to-face meeting.
2. the reporting person is assigned a unique case number and password, in case the reporting person wishes to continue the dialogue and / or follow the status of the case. The information needs to be saved securely.
3. KPMG’s reviewer unit receives the case (and send a confirmation to the reporting person that the report has been received if the person who reported it has created an account for further contact or provided contact information in another way).
4. KPMG’s reviewer unit makes an initial assessment of the case.
5. The report and the initial assessment are forwarded to the pre-determined contact persons within Stafsjö for further handling and action planning. KPMG ensures that a report is not forwarded to anyone within Stafsjö who is affected by the report.
6. Stafsjö decides on any remediation measures.
7. Feedback is provided to the person who reported, if the person has created an account or provided contact information in another way.

Within seven days from reporting, the reporting person receives a confirmation from KPMG that the report has been received if it is not the case that the reporting person has renounced this confirmation or if there is reason to believe that a confirmation would reveal the person’s identity.

KPMG provides reasonable feedback to the reporting person on what action has been taken and why, within three months from the time of reporting (or if no confirmation of receiving the report has been provided, seven days after the report has been received).

Stafsjö’s whistleblower channel is not intended to replace other reporting channels but serves as a complement to these. The person who wants to report a misconduct can choose the reporting channel that is most appropriate depending on the circumstances and their own assessment of the risk of retaliation. Other possible channels are:

• Internal reporting in other ways (for example, the immediate superior, the HR department or the organization’s legal function),
• External reporting via channel.
  Whistleblowers are given the opportunity to report externally to authorities specifically appointed by the government. External reporting channels have been established for the purpose of handling reporting on violations that fall within a certain authority’s area of responsibility. It can be used, for example, if the whistleblower does not believe in an objective handling when reporting to the internal reporting channel. It is up to the whistleblower to choose whether to report internally or externally and it is possible to report directly to an external reporting channel without first reporting internally. External reporting does not restrict whistleblower protection, regardless of whether the reporting concerns an issue that falls outside the authority’s area of responsibility or not. Reporting can be done via the following authorities’ websites.

• • Swedish work environment authority
  • Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning
  • Swedish National Electrical Safety Board
  • Swedish economic crime authority
  • Swedish Estate Agents Inspectorate
  • Financial Supervisory Authority
  • Public Health Agency of Sweden
  • Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management
  • Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection
  • Inspectorate of Strategic Products
  • Health and Social Care Inspectorate
  • Swedish Chemicals Agency
  • Swedish Consumer Agency
  • Swedish competition authority
  • Swedish Food Agency
  • Swedish medical products Agency
  • County Administrative Boards
  • Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency
  • Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
  • Swedish Post and Telecom Authority
  • Government offices of Sweden
  • Swedish Inspectorate of Auditors
  • Swedish Tax Agency
  • Swedish Forrest Agency
  • Swedish Gambling Authority i
  • Swedish Energy Agency
  • Swedish Board of Agriculture
  • Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment
  • Radiation Safety Authority
  • Swedish Transport Agency

External reporting to EU institutions, for example:

• European Anti-Fraud Office
• European Maritime Safety Agency
• European Aviation Safety Agency
• European Securities and Markets Authority
• European Medicines Agency

Regarding reporting via external reporting channels

The possibility to report misconduct of public interest does not apply in an external reporting channel. In that case, only misconduct concerning a violation of EU law can be reported.

Publication

• Publication means that information about misconduct is made available to the public. A publication can be achieved by the reporting person him or herself publishing the information in some medium that is available to the public, e.g. social media. Publication also includes information provided to an actor or a journalist, who then disseminates / publishes it. Reporting by publication can be done anonymously.

About publishing

If reporting takes place via publication, one of the following conditions must exist for the person to be protected by the Whistleblower Act:

• an authority that has an external reporting channel has breached its duty to take action;
• that the malpractice involves a risk to life and health or;
• that the reporting person has reasonable cause to believe that there is a risk of retaliation.

Freedom of information and freedom of acquisition

Freedom of the Press Act (TF) or the Freedom of Expression Act (YGL) there are regulations on freedom of information and freedom of acquisition. Freedom of information is the right, but not the obligation, of every citizen to provide information on any subject for publication and publication in constitutionally protected media. This right also applies to a certain extent to classified information such as information from non-public documents. Freedom of acquisition can be seen as an extension of the freedom of information and gives the right to acquire the information for the purpose of publishing or publishing it.

There are also regulations in TF and YGL on exemptions from the freedom of information as it is not permitted to provide information if this constitutes certain serious violations of national security or certain other crimes directed against the state.