Definitions and Clarafication

Involves an approach where even the smallest offence leads to (harsh) punishment.…

Organisations with a workforce of 50 employees or more must have a works council (WoCo). A WoCo is an employee participation and co-determination body within an organisation and its members are employees who consult with the employer on behalf of the staff about company policy and employee interests. The Works Councils Act (Wet op de ondernemingsraden) establishes the rights and duties of the Works Council.…

A whistleblower exposes malpractice in an organisation. Employers with a workforce of 50 or more must set up a procedure for reporting (suspected) malpractice in the employer’s organisation. The obligation to have an internal whistleblower policy referred to here is part of the Dutch Whistleblowers (Authority) Act (Wet Huis voor Klokkenluiders) and its purpose is to improve the conditions for reporting social malpractice within organisations, by facilitating the investigation of malpractice and providing for better protection of whistleblowers. Your whistleblower policy describes how you deal with reports of suspected malpractice within your organisation. In the near future, the Dutch Whistleblowers…

Is the behaviour and attitude of top management, including the board and supervisory body of an organisation, which focuses on setting a good example.…

Oversees an organisation’s policies and implementation of policies on behalf of shareholders and the stakeholder. A supervisory director is a member of the organisation’s supervisory body.…

The supervisory body of an organisation, such as the Supervisory Board or the Board of Trustees. The term governance body refers to the supervisory body of an organisation, regardless of its actual designation. In practice, there are other types of body that either have a different role or are formalised differently or not at all. For example, the Advisory Board, which is not a (formal) supervisory body but has an advisory or sounding board function, the shareholders or a selection thereof (e.g. board members of a trust office foundation) or other types. Putting together recommendations for these rather different bodies…

The obligation under laws or regulations to report an event, a transaction or possibly relevant non-compliance with laws and regulations to a specific authority. This also includes drawing up an internal report or issuing an alert if a specific situation arises, based on a code of conduct.…

Article 10 of the Constitution provides for the right to privacy: ‘Everyone has the right to respect for his privacy, subject to limitations imposed by or pursuant to the law.’ Other legislation contains rules about what can and cannot be done in the context of privacy. The most important one is the General Data Protection Regulation (Algemene Verordening Gegevensbescherming/AVG), which is in force throughout the EU and applies to all organisations that record the personal data of customers, staff or other people in the EU. In the Netherlands, the Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens/AP) supervises compliance with the legal rules…

It is synonymous with, for example, enterprise, non-profit organisation, institution, entity, etc.…

Comprises the complete set of control measures to ensure achievement of the (strategic) objectives set by the organisation, within the defined preconditions such as cost levels, and observance of the agreements in effect and the valid procedures (compliance). The internal control set-up comprises: (a) the internal control system itself: what control measures are in place to manage the organisation as a whole? (b) the content of the control system: the quality of the various control measures that are intended to guarantee that objectives and standards are achieved.…