The Occupational Safety and Health Act Osh Act Whistleblowing Protect Employee from Retaliation

From 3arf

There are laws that protect employees from employer retaliation in many cases of whistleblowing in the workplace. The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) and other laws protect an employee from retaliation by unions, government agencies, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) when the employee reports acts such as unsafe or harmful working conditions, environmental problems, certain types of public safety hazards, and certain other types of violations of federal provisions concerning securities fraud. The whistleblowers cannot be transferred, denied a raise, have their hours reduced, or be fired or punished in any other way because they have exercised their right as a whistleblower. This is according to theUnited States Department of Labor website.

A recent incident involving a commercial airline pilot from California resulted in his suspension from the Federal Flight Deck Officer program after he filmed what he thought were lapses in security at the airport and then posted them online. He wanted to expose what he thought were obvious problems with the way that security was being handled in an effort to improve it. In his attempt to improve the process, it is pretty obvious that he went about his mission the wrong way by making the Transportation Security Administration look like a bunch of fools. Even by following the laws that are in place to protect whistleblowers, the TSA was able to have him suspended from the Federal Flight Deck Officer program that allowed him to have a gun in the cockpit of the plane and to allow him to essentially act like an air marshal. The entire story can be found on the CNN website, or by clickinghere.

The obvious point is this; you have to ask yourself what your motivation is for whistleblowing in the first place. Is there really an injustice going on within the company or organization that could hurt the business, the shareholders, and the other employees? Is there a serious violation that is occurring that the company should be aware of? Would not reporting this incident be detrimental to the entire organization? If so, the person reporting these infractions should follow the proper chain of command within the organization to address and hopefully resolve the issue. Not every employee within an organization is a compliance officer or a federal regulator. It is not within the job description of every employee to police the actions of every aspect of the company, especially the ones that are not related to their own job. It is also beneficial to know all of the facts before proceeding with an accusation or complaint that may be incorrect. The uninformed whistleblower may be causing more harm than good by jumping the gun or going through the wrong channels to resolve the issue or perceived issue that may not even exist.

It is also important to note that seeking revenge on a coworker or settling a personal score with someone in the office is not whistleblowing; that is simply childish behavior that is counterproductive to all aspects of the organization. Contrary to popular belief, most whistleblowers are not seen as heroes or saviors of the organization. Often, their misguided efforts end up unnecessarily costing the company additional time and resources that could have been spent on company expansion or salary increases. By all means, if you work for a an organization that is clearly defrauding investors or you become aware of an employee that is embezzling from the company, it is your obligation to verify your suspicions before proceeding and to then address the issue internally and let the powers that be bring the matter to the attention of the proper authorities.

Be forewarned, whistleblowers are rarely seen as heroes and are often made out to be pariahs as in the case of the pilot that was chastised for making the TSA look bad instead of addressing his own concerns in the proper fashion. While there are laws to protect people that bring matters of injustice and fraud to the proper authorities, there are no laws on subjective treatment that the employee is later subject to. In this way, an employer can always make things miserable for an employee that cannot be quantified. These are the cases that people do not hear about as often because they do not make exciting news stories. Also, companies generally do not like to hire whistleblowers. A future employer may ask an employee why they are switching jobs or why they left their last job. Employers generally do not make a habit of hiring people that openly admit that they have caused trouble for their previous employers.

References:

CNN. (2010). Pilot says tsa punished him for sharing videos online. Retrieved

February 13, 2011, from

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/24/california.tsa.pilot/index.html?hpt=C1#

United States Department of Labor. (2011). Whistleblower protections. Retrieved

February 13, 2011, from http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-

whistleblower.htm

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