Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetIn detailing its recent announcement of a major restructuring of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Office of the Whistleblower Protection Program, the U.S. Department of Labor thanked The Employment Law Group® for its input in the program restructuring project. The acknowledgement came in a Department of Labor report entitled “OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Chesapeake, Virginia-based Dollar Tree Stores with repeat workplace safety hazards at a Newark, New Jersey location and has proposed $121,000 in penalties. OSHA found during an inspection of the Dollar Tree Store in Newark that the retailer had permitted its exit routes [...]

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TweetOn March 13, 2012, JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay the government $45 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged that the financial giant hid illegal fees in veteran’s home mortgage refinancing transactions and sought to collect on void government loan guarantees.  Two whistleblowers filed a qui tam lawsuit under the False Claims Acts in 2006 [...]

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TweetOn March 8, 2012, the Washington State Legislature passed legislation creating a Medicaid fraud false claims act with strong bipartisan support.  If signed into law, the bill (SB 5978/HB 2571) would give the state a new means of pursuing Medicaid fraud and would allow individual citizens – qui tam relators – to bring whistleblower lawsuits [...]

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TweetLast week, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a major restructuring of its Office of the Whistleblower Protection Program. As a result of the changes, the Program will now report directly to OSHA’s Office of the Assistant Secretary instead of to its Directorate of Enforcement Programs. The result of this [...]

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TweetAccording to a report this week in the Financial Times, the chief of the Securities Exchange Commission’s new Whistleblower Office, Sean McKessey, stated that the SEC has “received notes, audio recordings of conversations and simple recollections” of securities fraud and other wrongdoing since a new whistleblower reward program promising rewards for whistleblowers began last year. [...]

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TweetOn February 28, 2012, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) confirmed allegations that the United States Postal Service retaliated against a Seattle safety specialist who advised a co-worker to file a safety complaint. OSHA investigated the initial claim and found that the Postal Service violated the whistleblower protection provisions of the Occupation Safety and [...]

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TweetDave Scher, Principal of The Employment Law Group® law firm, was recently interviewed and quoted by Lawyers USA, a national newspaper focused on news and trends in litigation, as well as law practice management. Commenting on recent media attention given to corporate rule-breaking and the employees who report it, Mr. Scher noted that “[as] retaliation claims [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last week ordered Interline Logistics Group LLC, a trucking company headquartered in Kennesaw, Georgia, to reinstate a Sauk Village truck driver, and pay over $190,000 in back wages and compensatory damages for violating the whistleblower provision of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA). The [...]

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TweetThe Employment Law Group® law firm’s managing principal, R. Scott Oswald, has published an article in The Rocket Docket News, entitled “Blowing the Whistle in 2012: New Developments in Qui Tam Litigation”. The article focuses on recent developments in the field of qui tam litigation including: Recent interpretations of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act [...]

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TweetOn February 13, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued citations to Publix Supermarket for sixteen safety and health violations after a worker lost his hand while cleaning conveyor equipment at a Jacksonville distribution center in September. OSHA proposed a total of $182,000 in penalties for repeat violations, including failure to create and follow [...]

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TweetFollowing complaints made by foreign student workers, this week the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited Exel Inc., a facility owned by Hershey Co., with nine workplace safety and health violations and proposed $283,000 in penalties. OSHA also issued one citation to SHS Group LP, doing business as SHS Staffing [...]

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TweetOn January 31, 2012, the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board (ARB) affirmed the decision of the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in the case of Luder v. Continental Airlines which found that Continental Airlines retaliated against a pilot who blew the whistle on perceived violations of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Department of Labor last week ordered Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic to reinstate James Seehusen, a former courier. The clinic terminated Seehusen after he complained that it failed to repair a broken windshield on a vehicle, perform proper daily inspections on vehicles, and require drivers to obtain proper certification in order to operate the clinic’s [...]

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