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The law in various jurisdictions has moved to protect people who ‘blow the whistle’ on serious wrongdoing within their organisation. Where jurisdictions in which we operate impose a higher standard, those local standards are deemed to be incorporated into and supplement this policy.
This policy, aligned to Datacom’s values and Code of Conduct, provides an avenue for a variety of stakeholders to raise concerns and reassurance that their concerns will be addressed in a timely and confidential manner and they will be protected from reprisals or victimisation, in accordance with this Policy.
Datacom will treat any disclosure of serious wrongdoing properly, and you are encouraged to speak up to help us identify and deal with any of this type of behaviour.
This policy applies to all current and former employees, directors, officers, contractors, and/or third parties engaged by Datacom or working at Datacom – and any family member of those people.
You may make a report or disclosure under this policy if you are a current or former Datacom director, officer, employee, contractor, secondee, intern or volunteer, graduate, homeworker, supplier, consultant, adviser or other person who has business dealings with Datacom, and you have reasonable grounds to believe that someone has engaged in conduct related to Datacom which is:
You can still qualify for protection even if your disclosure turns out to be incorrect, as long as you have reasonable grounds for making the disclosure and are not acting in “bad faith”.
To avoid doubt, Reportable Conduct does not include general or personal work-related grievances unless these separately qualify as Reportable Conduct. These grievances should be reported to your manager in accordance with our usual HR practice or referred to a member of the people and culture team.
To qualify for protection under the law, unless it is an exception as noted below, you must make a disclosure of Reportable Conduct to an “eligible recipient”, who are described in this section.
You may disclose any Reportable Conduct to a Whistleblower Protection Officer as listed below:
If you are unable to use any of the above reporting channels, or feel uncomfortable doing so, you can disclose to any member of the Group Leadership Team (GLT), the Group CEO or Group CFO, or any member of the Legal & Commercial Team (Legal_CommercialTeam@datacom.co.nz ).
If you do not feel comfortable making an internal report, then you can contact the Chair of the Audit Committee of the Board, Mr Chris Day or any other Board member.
You may also report any Reportable Conduct to our auditors, an external lawyer or to any regulator such as the Financial Markets Authority in New Zealand, or the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in Australia. This policy will also apply to those disclosures.
As an exception to the recipients mentioned above, in certain circumstances in Australia, you may make a public interest or emergency disclosure to journalists and Members of Parliament for Reportable Conduct, or in New Zealand to any “appropriate authority” at any time. These processes are set out in Appendix 1 (for Australia) and Appendix 2 (for New Zealand).
If you wish to obtain additional information before making a disclosure, please contact one of our Whistleblower Protection Officers or the Chair of the Audit Committee.
You can make an anonymous disclosure, but it may be difficult for us to properly investigate the matters disclosed if a report is submitted anonymously. Therefore, we encourage you to share your identity when making a disclosure, although you are not required to do so. If you share your identity, we will use our best endeavours to keep confidential any information that might identify you as the discloser.
Where a disclosure has been made externally and you provide your contact details, those contact details will only be provided to a Whistleblower Protection Officer with your consent or otherwise where this is allowed.
We will investigate all disclosures as soon as practicable, after the matter has been reported. A Whistleblower Protection Officer will investigate the matter and where necessary, may appoint an external investigator to assist in conducting the investigation. All investigations will be conducted in a fair, independent and timely
manner and we will use our best endeavours to preserve confidentiality during the investigation and not identify you if you have requested anonymity.
The process you can expect is set out in Appendix 3.
If the report is not anonymous, the Whistleblower Protection Officer or external investigator will contact you to discuss the investigation process and any other matters that are relevant to the investigation.
Where you have chosen to remain anonymous, subject to the provisions allowing disclosure as set out below, your identity will not be disclosed to the investigator or to any other person conducting the investigation unless you consent in writing or where we reasonably believe that disclosure of identifying information is essential:
Where possible, the Whistleblower Protection Officer will provide you with feedback on the progress and expected timeframes of the investigation, including consulting with you where we reasonably believe that disclosure of identifying information is required. The person against whom any allegations have been made will also be informed of the concerns and will be provided with an opportunity to respond (unless there are any restrictions or other reasonable bases for not doing so).
To the extent permitted by law and if appropriate, the Whistleblower Protection Officer may inform you and/or a person against whom allegations have been made of the findings of the investigation.
We are committed to ensuring that any person who makes a disclosure in good faith is treated fairly and does not suffer detriment. The protections listed below will apply even if the discloser:
If your disclosure qualifies as a protected disclosure, you will not be subject to any civil, criminal or administrative legal action (including disciplinary action) for making a disclosure under this policy. These protections do not protect you from your misconduct which is uncovered during an investigation or if you have acted in bad faith.
Datacom (or any person engaged by Datacom) will not engage in “Detrimental Conduct” against you if you have not acted in bad faith and you have made a proper disclosure of Reportable Conduct under this policy, or have signalled you intend to, or where you have encouraged someone else to make a disclosure.
Detrimental Conduct includes actual or threatened retaliatory conduct or less favourable treatment such as the following:
We will take all reasonable steps to protect you from Detrimental Conduct in accordance with this Policy and will take necessary action where such conduct is identified.
We will ensure fair treatment of all people involved in a matter.
If you are subjected to Detrimental Conduct as a result of making a disclosure under this policy or participating in an investigation, you should inform a Whistleblower Protection Officer as set out above.
In Australia you may also seek remedies including compensation, civil penalties or reinstatement where you have been subject to any Detrimental Conduct. In New Zealand you may be able to raise a personal grievance under the Employment Relations Act 2000.
All information received from you will be treated confidentially and sensitively – to the same extent as any HR complaint or issue. All recipients will use their best endeavours to keep confidential any identifying information about you to the same extent as our Privacy Act obligations or otherwise in accordance with this Policy.
If you make a disclosure under this policy, your identity (or any information which would likely to identify you) will only be shared if:
Any recipient of your disclosure is required under this Policy not to disclose your identity unless one of these exemptions apply. Where it is necessary to disclose information for the effective investigation of the matter, and this is likely to lead to your identification, all reasonable steps will be taken to reduce the risk that you will be identified.
All our employees have access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for any ongoing concerns you have about any disclosure under this policy.
Details of our EAP providers for employees may be obtained via our People and Culture team or from a Whistleblower Protection Officer.
Any breach of this policy will be taken seriously and may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.
Group chief financial officer, policy owner
Group chief executive officer
Last review: 30 June 2022
In certain situations, the conduct or wrongdoing (if it occurs in Australia) may be of such gravity and urgency that disclosure to the media or a parliamentarian is necessary.
A public interest and emergency disclosure can only be made to:
To qualify for protection when making a public interest disclosure to a journalist or MP, all of the following need to apply:
To qualify for protection when making an emergency disclosure to a journalist or MP, all of the following need to apply:
The head of any “public sector organisation” which includes:
But does not include:
Any protected disclosure that is or includes international relations information should only be disclosed to the Ombudsman, and any protected disclosure that is or includes intelligence and security information should only be disclosed to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.
Where a disclosure is made to an appropriate authority, the appropriate authority may decide to refer the disclosure to Datacom or to another appropriate authority (in which case, the discloser will be consulted first).
What you can expect once you make a protected disclosure
We will use all reasonable endeavours to complete the following process within 20 working days:
However, where we cannot or when it is impracticable to complete these actions within 20 working days, we will use all reasonable endeavours to inform you how long we expect to take to deal with the matter and keep you updated on progress.
