1. What you can report
The whistleblowing channel is intended for reporting wrongdoing in a work-related context where there is a public interest in it coming to light. This may, for example, concern serious or systematic irregularities, corruption, fraud, security failings, or other matters that affect more than the individual person. The protection may also cover reporting of breaches of certain EU law specified in the Whistleblowing Act.
To be covered by the protection of the Act, you must, at the time of reporting, have reasonable grounds to believe that the information about the wrongdoing is true.
This is not the right channel for questions about your own pay, an individual assignment, or an invoice you want to dispute. Our support team answers those faster.
2. Who can report
The protection of the Whistleblowing Act covers a broad group of people who have obtained information about wrongdoing in a work-related context. This may include current and former employees, people applying for work, self-employed persons, consultants and others performing work under the undertaking's control and direction, interns, volunteers, members of the company's management or supervisory bodies, and shareholders who are active in the company.
EasyFreelance's internal reporting channel is to be available at least to the categories of people the Act requires. This includes, among others, employees, volunteers, interns, people performing work under EasyFreelance's control and direction, self-employed persons, members of the company's administrative, management or supervisory bodies, and shareholders who are active in the company.
3. How to report
You must be able to report in writing and orally. You also have the right, if you request it, to report at a physical meeting within a reasonable time.
Written reports are submitted to [email protected]. Oral reports are made by telephone to EasyFreelance's customer support. If you would rather report at a physical meeting, one is arranged within a reasonable time of your request. EasyFreelance does not offer anonymous reporting.
4. Who receives and handles the report
Reports are to be received and followed up by specially designated persons or units that are impartial and independent in their handling of whistleblowing cases. Only persons authorised to receive, follow up and provide feedback on reports may have access to personal data in a follow-up case, and access is to be limited to what each person needs for their work.
Reports are received and followed up by EasyFreelance's managing director. Where the report concerns the managing director, it is instead received and followed up by the company's board.
5. Acknowledgement and feedback
If you provide contact details, you will normally receive an acknowledgement that the report has been received within seven days. An acknowledgement need not be given if you have expressly declined it, or if there is reason to believe that an acknowledgement could reveal your identity.
You are also to receive feedback, to a reasonable extent, on the measures taken to follow up the report and the reasons for them. Feedback is normally to be given within three months of the acknowledgement. If no acknowledgement has been given for reasons other than ones you caused yourself, the time limit runs instead from seven days after the report was received.
What information can be given in the feedback may be limited by, among other things, the duty of confidentiality, privacy considerations, and regard for the continuing investigation.
6. Confidentiality, the duty of confidentiality, and personal data
A person handling a whistleblowing case may not disclose without authorisation any information that could reveal the identity of the reporting person or of any other individual appearing in the case.
Personal data may only be processed where it is necessary for the follow-up of a whistleblowing case. Access to the data is to be limited to authorised persons and to what is needed for their duties. Data that is manifestly irrelevant is not to be collected, and is to be erased as soon as possible if it has been collected all the same.
In the private sector, written reports and documentation of oral reporting are to be kept for as long as necessary, but no longer than two years after the follow-up case has been closed.
General information about how EasyFreelance processes personal data is available in our privacy policy.
7. Protection against reprisals
A person who meets the Act's conditions for protection may not be hindered from reporting and may not be subjected to reprisals because of the report. The protection may also cover persons who assist the reporting person, and persons or undertakings connected with the reporting person.
The protection requires, among other things, that at the time of reporting you had reasonable grounds to believe that the information about the wrongdoing was true. This means that a report does not have to turn out to be correct for the protection to apply. Knowingly false information is not covered by the same protection.
8. External reporting to an authority
You do not have to report internally to EasyFreelance first in order to use a competent authority's external reporting channel, provided that the report falls within that channel's area of responsibility and the other conditions are met.
Which authority is competent depends on the area the wrongdoing concerns. The Swedish Work Environment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket) holds information on the authorities responsible for external reporting channels under Ordinance (2021:949). Arbetsmiljöverket is also the supervisory authority for employers' obligation to have internal reporting channels, and is the external reporting authority in certain specific areas. An up-to-date list of competent authorities and their areas of responsibility is available on Arbetsmiljöverket's website.
9. Questions about the reporting scheme
If you have questions about how EasyFreelance's whistleblowing function works, what reporting routes exist, or how your personal data is processed, you can contact us through this route without submitting the whistleblowing report itself.
Questions about the whistleblowing function are sent to [email protected] or put to customer support by telephone. This contact route is not the reporting channel — a report is submitted as set out in section 3.