An Israeli public sector employee harassed at work due to blowing the whistle on an act of corruption, a severe contravention of the law, or a serious violation of proper governance may seek relief from the State Comptroller in his capacity as Ombudsman, subject to State Comptroller Law, 5718-1958 [Consolidated Version]. The Ombudsman is authorized to grant the whistleblower any order seen fit, including a temporary protection order, a re-instatement order following a dismissal, or an order granting special compensation to the employee. This law is designed to encourage whistleblowing by enabling employees to report corruption at work without fearing for their job.
The Office of the Ombudsman issued a public appeal for research services on the effectiveness of the reliefs and protection granted by the Ombudsman to public servants who had exposed corruption at their workplace and have experienced harassment as a result. In doing so, the Office of the Ombudsman recognizes the importance of collecting data and deepening its knowledge about its activity areas as a basis for improved decision making and operations. The Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute was selected to conduct the research.
The research questions are:
- What factors affect the effectiveness of the protection provided to whistleblowers?
- To what extent have the investigative procedures and the decisions made achieved their goal of protecting the complainant’s occupational, financial, familial and emotional condition (from both the objective and subjective aspects)?
- What are the stages and methods of dealing with a person who has contacted the Office of the Ombudsman with a complaint on harassment due to whistleblowing?
The research design combined qualitative and quantitative instruments and included six stages. Each stage served as the basis for the one that followed: (1) Comparative review of the literature; (2) Focused examination of whistleblower lawsuits at the Labor Court; (3) In-depth interviews with officials in the Office of the Ombudsman and document analysis; (4) In-depth interviews with complainants, representatives of public bodies, and an NGO representative as an infrastructure for the survey; (5) Quantitative survey of complainants; and (6) Case studies.
The report presents the findings of the literature review and the recommendations arising from it, as well as the research findings and recommendations with regard to the treatment of complainants and the effectiveness of their protection. The recommendations are presented under three categories, according to their urgency. Moreover, the report highlights the differences between the Office of the Ombudsman and the Labor Courts in dealing with whistleblowers, and provides general recommendations for improving the work processes of the Office of the Ombudsman in order to encourage whistleblowing and protect whistleblowers.
Citing suggestion: Hasin, T., Lento, T., Beserman Navon, L., Dolev, H., Jacobovitz, Y., & Nissanholtz-Gannot, R. (2024). The Effectiveness of the Protection Provided to Whistleblowers by the Ombudsman. RR-975-24. Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute. (Hebrew)