WELLINGTON - The State Services Commission has warned the Government that legislation aimed at protecting private sector whistleblowers will impose compliance costs on businesses.
Documents obtained under the Official Information Act also reveal that the Economic Development Ministry was not in favour of amending the Protected Disclosures Bill to include the
private sector.
The Government passed the amendment in March, ignoring a select committee recommendation that the private sector be removed from the bill.
Under the legislation, which comes into force in January, workers who blow the whistle on serious wrongdoing in their workplace will be protected from civil and criminal liability and from unfair dismissal.
The bill was drafted after psychiatric nurse Neil Pugmire nearly lost his job six years ago after raising concerns about the freeing of a paedophile who had raped two boys.
The legislation will require public and private organisations to have procedures for dealing with the disclosure of information, raising the issue of compliance costs.
There is also concern that the bill will stop whistleblowers going to the media, as they will have to report their concerns through specific, internal channels.
The Commonwealth Press Union has warned that the bill could lead to the suppression of information that should become public.
In papers obtained under the information act, the State Services Commission said submissions to the select committee raised constitutional questions about using public sector officers to receive and investigate disclosures in the private sector.
In a paper dated January, the commission noted that the Ombudsman had expressed concern about the bill. In a paper dated March, it said the ministry agreed with the select committee that the private sector should be excluded.
It also said that including the private sector would be "contentious" as it would "impose compliance costs on the private sector, particularly for small businesses."
In a paper to the cabinet policy committee, State Services Minister Trevor Mallard noted the concerns.
"Some of the select committee had concerns about the increased possibility of aggrieved private sector employees making false claims or baseless allegations about their employers if the legislation covers the private sector," he said.
"They considered that such allegations could have a damaging effect on the business of the employer in the period before the allegations were proved to be untrue."
Mr Mallard said there was no evidence to suggest that compliance with the new law would be onerous.
