Whistleblowing channel

SAMK whistleblowing channel

The Act on the Protection of Persons Reporting Infringements of European Union and National Law (1171/2022), the Whistleblower Protection Act, entered into force on 1 January 2023.The Act obliges both private and public sector organisations to establish an internal whistleblowing channel for reporting suspected abuses under the Act.

SAMK whistleblowing channel required by law

The whistleblowing channel will allow current or former SAMK employees, job applicants, board members, trainees or professionals to report any wrongdoing they have observed in the course of their work. You can report if you suspect that a crime or misconduct has taken place in our company or any other activity that violates our company values.

Normal feedback, such as customer feedback, should be provided through these channels.

The Whistleblower Protection Act applies to the protection of persons who report breaches of European Union law or national legislation implementing it or other national legislation in the following areas:

  • Public procurement
  • Financial services and products
  • Product safety and compliance
  • Transport safety
  • Environmental protection
  • Radiation and nuclear safety
  • Food and feed safety, animal health and welfare
  • Public health
  • Consumer protection
  • Protection of privacy and personal data, security of network and information systems
  • EU economic interests
  • Infringements of competition and state aid rules
  • Infringements of Community tax rules.

SAMK will only receive notifications in writing through this channel and under its own name. The whistleblower will be protected in accordance with the law. Notifications of manifestly false or misleading information do not give rise to protection. The whistleblower may also be held criminally liable for intentionally providing false information.

How do I report?

We recommend that you contact your supervisor or his or her supervisor or another person responsible at SAMK in the first instance. If you do not wish to bring the matter to these people, you can use the whistleblowing channel. You can make a report through the whistleblowing channel under your name and have a confidential discussion with the person who handled the report.

How will my notification be handled?

All notifications will be treated appropriately and confidentially. We will always protect the confidentiality of the identity of the notifier, the subject of the notification and any other parties mentioned in the notification.

Only authorised persons have access to the information in the notification and we will not disclose your personal data to third parties without your consent.

In accordance with the decision of SAMK’s Management Team, the recipients of the notifications in the channel are the Head of Occupational Safety and Health and the Director of Finance and Administration, and the recipients of the notifications are the Rector, the Vice Rectors, the Data Protection Officer and the Data Security Officer. If the subject of the notification so requires, the Rector may appoint other experts to act as rapporteurs in order to ensure appropriate handling.

When will I receive a reply?

The notifier will receive an acknowledgement of receipt within seven days of the notification. The persons authorised to deal with notifications at SAMK may ask you for further information about your notification via the notification channel. They will also respond within three months to any action we may take on your notification. So please take note of the code you receive after submitting your notification, so that you can later log in to your notification and communicate with the persons dealing with the notification.

For more information on the encryption of the notifier’s identity

The Whistleblowing Channel has been implemented with an impartial and external partner, the Central Chamber of Commerce, to encrypt the identity of the notifier. The Central Chamber of Commerce provides the technical implementation of the service and does not receive the advertisements.

The notifications received through the notification channel are received and treated confidentially by the company’s authorised processors. Only authorised processors have access to the notifications.

The notification can be made by name. All notifications are encrypted at the time of creation with a symmetric and asymmetric strong encryption algorithm that cannot be decrypted or modified afterwards. Processors only have access to the time and content of the notification.

The notifier may choose to leave other contact details in addition to his/her name in the notification. Access to the data in the notification is limited to authorised persons and we will not disclose your personal data to third parties without your explicit consent, unless the proper processing of the notification requires the transfer of the data to the authorities or other similar measures.

Sensitive personal data should not be included in the notification unless it is necessary for the description of the notification and its processing.