At the beginning of the year, the EU legal requirements for the establishment of whistleblowing in companies and legal entities in the public sector were implemented in Austria in the form of the Whistleblower Protection Act (HinweisgeberInnenschutzgesetz). WU, therefore, also began implementing a whistleblowing platform.

WU has decided to implement an internal whistleblowing platform for legal violations as defined by the Whistleblower Protection Act, with reports being collected via an externally hosted platform. Whistleblowers can anonymously report grievances on specific topics. The processing and examination of whistleblowing reports is carried out internally by three WU employees who work in Internal Auditing, the Rector's Office and the Legal Affairs Office. The design of the whistleblowing platform itself and the WU-Policy planned for it ensure independent processing of reports by these employees.

Facts within the scope of the Whistleblower Protection Act can be reported. This includes, for example, the areas of public procurement, financial services, public health, environmental protection, etc. It does not include misconduct such as sexual harassment or bullying.

As already stated in the Code of Conduct, this system is intended to improve the organization without wrongfully discrediting colleagues. We, therefore, join with the university administration in asking for prudent use of the whistleblowing option.

More detailed regulations on the reporting process will be found in a separate WU-Policy in the future. This policy will be published in WU's regulations and forms database at https://swa.wu.ac.at/refo/_layouts/15/refo/refo.aspx# after it has been completed. Furthermore, an information page will be set up on the WU intranet, which will contain all relevant information.

^03.07.2023

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