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Offences and penalties
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24. The following section is inserted after section 14 of the Principal Act:
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“14A. (1) A person who—
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(a) hinders or attempts to hinder a worker in making a report,
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(b) penalises or threatens penalisation or causes or permits any other person to penalise or threaten penalisation against any of the following:
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(i) a reporting person;
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(ii) a facilitator;
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(iii) any third person who is connected with a reporting person and who could suffer retaliation in a work-related context, including as a colleague or relative of the reporting person;
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(iv) any legal entity that a reporting person owns, works for or is otherwise connected with in a work-related context,
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(c) brings vexatious proceedings against any person or legal entity referred to in paragraph (b),
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(d) breaches the duty of confidentiality in section 16 regarding the identity of reporting persons, or
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(e) fails to comply with the requirement in section 6(3) to establish, maintain and operate internal reporting channels and procedures referred to in the said section 6(3),
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commits an offence.
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(2) A reporting person who makes a report containing any information that he or she knows to be false commits an offence.
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(3) A person who commits an offence under subsection (1)(a), (b), (c) or (e) is liable—
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(a) on summary conviction, to a class A fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both, or
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(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €250,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years, or both.
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(4) A person who commits an offence under subsection (1)(d) is liable—
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(a) on summary conviction, to a class A fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both, or
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(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €75,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years, or both.
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(5) A person who commits an offence under subsection (2) is liable—
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(a) on summary conviction, to a class A fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both, or
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(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €100,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years, or both.
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(6) (a) Where an offence under subsection (1)(a), (b), (c), (d) or (e) or section 10F(14) or 12(5) or (6) has been committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of a person, being a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person as well as the body corporate commits an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she committed the first-mentioned offence.
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(b) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, paragraph (a) shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his or her functions of management as if he or she were a director or manager of the body corporate.
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(7) Summary proceedings for an offence under subsection (1)(e) may be brought and prosecuted by the Workplace Relations Commission.”.
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