WHISTLEBLOWING - The Restart Engineering S.R.L. internal whistleblowing channel

The platform may be specifically used to submit reports concerning:

• predicate offences pursuant to Legislative Decree 231/2001 and violations of the 231 Organisational Model adopted by the company.

The platform may NOT be used to submit:

• reports concerning disputes, claims, or requests linked to the personal interests of the whistleblower that relate exclusively to his or her individual employment relationships or are inherent to his or her employment relationships with subordinates;
• reports of violations already mandatorily regulated by the European Union or national legislation listed in Part II of the Annex;
• reports of violations relating to national security, or defence or national security aspects of public procurement contracts.

The current relevant legislation protects the following persons:

• employees of private sector entities;
• self-employed workers;
• freelancers and consultants;
• suppliers and customers;
• volunteers and trainees, whether paid or unpaid;

• shareholders and persons with administration, management, control, supervision or representation functions, even when such functions are exercised on a de facto basis.

Protections are also granted to the above-mentioned persons when the legal relationship has not yet begun, if information on violation has been acquired during the recruitment or other pre-contractual stages, during the probationary period, or after termination of the relationship (if the information on the violations was acquired during the course of the relationship).

In addition to the whistleblower, the following are also subject to protection:

• the facilitator, i.e. a natural person, working within the same employment context, who assists a whistleblower in the whistleblowing process;
• persons within the same employment context as the whistleblower who are linked to the whistleblower by stable sentimental or familial relationships up to the fourth degree;
• colleagues of the whistleblower who work within the same employment context and have habitual and ongoing relationships with the whistleblower;

• entities owned by the whistleblower or for which the same persons work, as well as entities operating within the same employment context as the aforementioned persons.

The protection measures provided for by Legislative Decree no. 24/2023 apply when the following conditions are met:

• at the time of the report, the whistleblower had reasonable grounds to believe that the information on the reported violations was true and fell within the objective scope of application of Legislative Decree no. 24/2023;

• the report or public disclosure was made based on the provisions of Legislative Decree no. 24/2023.

In these cases, retaliation against the whistleblower is absolutely prohibited. 

“Retaliation” is defined as any conduct, act, or omission, even if only attempted or threatened, carried out on account of the reporting or public disclosure, and which causes or may cause undue harm to the whistleblower, either directly or indirectly.

By way of example, the following can be considered “retaliation”:

• dismissal, suspension, or other similar measures;
• demotion or non-promotion;
• change of duties, change of workplace, reduction of salary, change of working hours;
• suspension of training or any restriction on access to training;
• demerit notes or negative references;
• adoption of disciplinary measures or any other sanctions, including fines;
• coercion, intimidation, harassment or ostracism;
• discrimination or otherwise unfavourable treatment;
• failure to convert a fixed-term employment contract into an open-ended employment contract, if the employee had a legitimate expectation of such conversion;
• non-renewal or early termination of a fixed-term employment contract;
• damage, including to the person’s reputation, in particular on social media, or economic or financial loss, including loss of economic opportunities and loss of income;
• early termination or cancellation of a contract for the supply of goods or services;
• cancellation of a licence or permit;
• request for psychiatric or medical examinations.

The protections laid out in Legislative Decree 24/2023 do not apply when the aforementioned conditions are no longer met (absence of well-founded reason to believe that the information on the violations reported was true and fell within the objective scope of application of Legislative Decree 24/2023, and that the report was submitted based on the provisions of the Decree), or when the criminal liability of the person submitting the report for the offences of defamation or slander, or his or her civil liability for the same offence, in cases of wilful misconduct or gross negligence, has been established, even by a judgement of first instance.

In these cases, the protection measures are not guaranteed and a disciplinary sanction is imposed on the whistleblower.

If the protections are not applicable, the prohibition on retaliation against the reporting person lapses.

The internal reporting channel accepts anonymous reports, which will be treated by the owner of the channel in the same way as the other reports.

The protections and safeguards provided for in the Decree are applicable in the case of anonymous reports if the whistleblower is subsequently identified and retaliated against.

An anonymous report can be submitted by selecting the relevant option on the questionnaire and by refraining from entering one’s identification data.

The identity of the whistleblower and any other information from which that identity may be inferred, either directly or indirectly, may not be disclosed to persons other than those competent to receive or follow up on the report without the express consent of the whistleblower.

Any such communication shall be governed by the provisions of the Decree.

The Decree provides for the establishment of an external channel, managed by the NACA (the National Anti-Corruption Authority), for submitting reports compliant with the Decree directly to the NACA. 

Without prejudice to the fact that reports must be sent as a priority and preferentially through the internal channel, the whistleblower may use the external channel when one or more of the following conditions are met:

• the mandatory internal channel:
  1. is not active;
  2. it is active but does not comply with the provisions of the Decree concerning the subjects and the procedures for submitting reports;
• the whistleblower has already submitted an internal report, but has not received a follow-up;
• the whistleblower has well-founded reasons to believe that if he or she submitted an internal report:
  1. it would not be effectively followed up;
  2. it could result in a risk of retaliation;
• the whistleblower has well-founded reasons to believe that the violation could constitute an imminent or obvious danger to the public interest.

Link to the external NACA channel:

https://whistleblowing.anticorruzione.it/#/

1. The platform must be used in accordance with the provisions of the legislation in force and the Company’s Whistleblowing Procedure;
2. the whistleblower undertakes to provide all the relevant information to substantiate and assess the report, even supplementing that which has already been communicated at the request of the persons in charge of handling the report (“Investigators”) if necessary. During the investigation phase, the whistleblower undertakes to cooperate with the Investigators in order to facilitate the verification of the violation;
3. the whistleblower must retain the report’s 16-digit key code issued upon the completion of the reporting procedure, which is the only secure means of accessing the report after its submission, and cannot be recovered by the platform operators or the owner of the internal reporting channel in any way. If lost, it may be necessary to re-submit the report.
   The key code will be issued in written form once the reporting procedure has been completed via the questionnaire;
4. the whistleblower may access the report, using his or her key code, to check the report’s status and interact and communicate with the investigator through the ad hoc channels, in order to provide all useful information to substantiate the reported violation;
5. the whistleblower must refrain from communicating any information that could lead to his/her identification, other than the inclusion of his/her identification data in the special section of the questionnaire (in the case of a non-anonymous report);
6. in the case of anonymous reports, the Investigator may ask the whistleblower to provide his/her identification data if he/she considers them to be decisive elements for the purposes of substantiating and evaluating the report.
   The whistleblower may supplement this information by accessing his or her report using the key code.