News
Workplace bullying still rife in Australian companies 8 September 2009
A recent Drake International survey of over 800 Australia-wide employees has revealed bullying is still rife in Australian workplaces . More than 50% of survey respondents had witnessed bullying behaviour and over 25% had been a target of bullying themselves. Poor management of the issue by Organisations was also revealed as only 30% of bullying targets and less than 50% of witnesses were satisfied with their organisations handling of the situation. More than 50% also noted the bullying behaviour had been going on for over 6 months.
Experts from 17 Countries Agree on Best Practices for Whistleblower Legislation 11 December 2009
Earlier this year, over 30 delegates from 17 countries gathered in Prague to develop a list best practices for whistleblower legislation. The results have just been made available by Transparency International (TI), the corruption-fighting group that organized the gathering, in the form of a document entitled “Recommended draft principles for whistleblowing legislation.”
The document provides recommendations for the scope, disclosure procedures, protection, enforcement, and legislative structure of whistleblower policy. The group agreed on 27 guiding principles for developing whistleblower legislation.
Accompanying the release of the draft principles is an analysis of the whistleblower legislation in ten European countries.
Fraud hotline saves $1.3m 23 February 2009
Public tip-offs to the Motor Accident Commission (South Australia) have led to a dozen people being caught for injury fraud in the past three weeks. The Commission says it has meant savings of $1.3 million.
Ben Tuffnell, from the Commission, says some people go to extraordinary lengths to try to rip-off the system. “Recently we’ve seen people who’ve been involved in staging crashes and seeking motor injury insurance that way,” he said.
“People often exaggerate their injuries or they just make false claims so there’s many ways people do try and rort the system. The bottom line is you will get caught.”
Mr Tuffnell says the savings ultimately benefit other motorists. “We estimate we’ve saved about $25 million in the past five years and that’s probably saved people about $10 per registration off their motor vehicle, so there are benefits in there for people if you do report fraud, if you do hear of someone rorting the system,” he said.
More workers are blowing the whistle in Japan, but the risks are still great -Martin Fackler New York Times 9 June 2008
“A decade ago, corporate whistleblowing was almost unheard of in Japan. A person’s place of employment was part of his identity, and unflinching company loyalty was the highest of virtues. But the unquestioningly obedient salary earner is becoming a relic, the result of a broader transformation of Japan and the global economy.”
“Now, lawyers and economists say Japanese workers are beginning to speak out — despite a still-potent risk of ostracism because of the widely held view that such disclosure constitutes betrayal. ”
Phoning It In John Mc Partlin CFO Magazine 27 February, 2007
.. recent study of nearly 200,000 whistleblowing reports of alleged infractions, almost two-thirds of the complaints were made via hotlines without first alerting anyone in management, and few prove to be false alarms,”