Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetLast week, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sued retail food store chain Whole Foods Market for terminating marketing specialist Bridget Hobart in November 2009 because she had reported health concerns to OSHA after a sewer line ruptured in the Whole Foods store in Miami Beach.  The lawsuit follows an OSHA [...]

[Read more →]

TweetThe U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) awarded $99,000 to Gy Bennar, a former Head Greens Keeper at an Oklahoma golf course, for blowing the whistle on illegal wastewater treatment practices. Southwestern Oklahoma Development Authority (“SWODA”) managed the public golf course. Over the course of four years, Bennar allegedly witnessed SWODA using water from [...]

[Read more →]

TweetThe National Whistleblower Center, National Employment Lawyers Association, and The Employment Law Group® law firm filed an amicus brief in Villanueva v. Core Laboratories NV, a case before the Department of Labor Administrative Review Board (ARB).  Our amicus brief argues that whistleblowers at overseas subsidiaries remain protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) when the protected activity includes emails to the U.S., [...]

[Read more →]

TweetOn May 24, 2010, Mr. Joe Oglesby, a former United States Marine, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), alleging that his former employer, Foresight Transportation Group (Foresight), pressured truck drivers to work more hours than safely allowed and then to falsify their log books to avoid suspicion.  Overturning the findings of [...]

[Read more →]

Tweet Image via Wikipedia Washington, D.C. — Voices for Corporate Responsibility is hosting a Whistleblower Seminar on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at the Fairmont Hotel.  The seminar will include whistleblower attorney Jason Zuckerman as a panellist and will consist of two sessions: Will Internal Compliance Requirements Strengthen or Weaken the Law? and Can the SEC Handle the [...]

[Read more →]

TweetIn an ADA and FMLA action, a former-Baker & McKenzie LLP associate succeeded in shielding his records of mental health treatment.  Judge Jeffrey Cole held that where a discrimination plaintiff seeks damages for “garden variety” emotional distress and has not put his mental state at issue, i.e., by seeking damages for “severe” emotional distress or [...]

[Read more →]

TweetOSHA has ordered Utah Transit Authority (UTA) to reinstate a whistleblower and pay more than $130,000 in back wages with interest and attorney’s fees.  According to the complaint, the UTA fired the whistleblower in retaliation for raising security concerns, which violates the Federal Railroad Safety Act. For more information about the firm’s Whistleblower Law Practice, [...]

[Read more →]

TweetAccording to the Washington Examiner, a D.C. jury awarded Sean McLaughlin damages for retaliation in violation of the DC Whistleblower Protection Act.  McLaughlin alleged D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, a district commander at the time, threatened police officers with “consequences” if they pursued their claims that the police department’s off-duty reimbursable overtime security detail at [...]

[Read more →]

TweetA Warren County Circuit held that a fraud investigator can sue her employer for wrongful discharge under Bowman when the employer interferes with her fraud investigations and subsequently fires her for appearing before a grand jury.  Click here for the full opinion. The employment lawyers at The Employment Law Firm® have extensive experience representing those [...]

[Read more →]

TweetAccording to an article in Politico, the Congressional Whistleblower Protection Act introduced by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) has yet to be reported to the full Senate and continues to languish in the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.  Similar to the Whistleblower Protection Act which protects most federal employees who [...]

[Read more →]

TweetIn Vinnett v. Mitsubishi Power Systems, the Department of Labor Administrate Review Board held that employees who report nuclear safety concerns engage in protected conduct under Section 211 of the Energy Reorganization Act (ERA) regardless of whether they are blowing the whistle in the course of performing their job duties.  The ARB states: [T]here is [...]

[Read more →]

TweetThe Ethics Resource Center conducted a study titled Retaliation: The Cost to Your Company and Its Employees showing that employers’ efforts to reduce employee misconduct are insufficient absent the adoption of a strong anti-retaliation policy.  The study concludes that employers should promote ethical behavior and adopt a strong anti-retaliation policy in order to improve the [...]

[Read more →]

TweetJustice Procaccini commended the defendant’s counsel and The Employment Law Group® law firm’s attorneys R. Scott Oswald and David Scher for their excellent trial work. With the completion of the O’Neill v. Warwick trial marking Procaccini’s ninth anniversary on the bench, the Warwick Beacon reported that: Procaccini told the court that he loves his work [...]

[Read more →]

TweetA jury for the Superior Court of Kent County in Rhode Island found Warwick Public School District not liable under the Rhode Island Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) for the wrongful termination of Mary Katherine O’Neill, a client of The Employment Law Group®.  School administrators fired Ms. O’Neill following an interview she gave to a local [...]

[Read more →]

TweetThe U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that an employee is protected from retaliation under the retaliation provision of the False Claims Act when reporting any activity that reasonably could lead to a False Claims Act (FCA) suit even when the employee is completely unaware of the FCA.  Plaintiff Christopher Gobble was [...]

[Read more →]

TweetThe House of Representatives passed the Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act, which prohibits oil and gas companies from terminating or discriminating against offshore employees who report unsafe conditions or refuse to work in unsafe conditions.  Closing a significant loophole, the legislation extends whistleblower protections currently in place for onshore oil and gas [...]

[Read more →]

TweetOn July 13, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois denied a motion for summary judgment in Schlicksup v. Caterpillar, Inc., allowing a Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) whistleblower, Daniel Schlicksup, to proceed to trial. Schlicksup, a tax manager with twenty years of experience, alleges that he was involuntarily reassigned by his employer Caterpillar [...]

[Read more →]

TweetPrincipal Jason Zuckerman of The Employment Law Group® law firm is quoted in an article in BNA’s Daily Labor Report titled “Attorneys Agree Financial Overhaul Bill Has Vigorous Whistleblower Protections” about the whistleblower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.  The Dodd-Frank Act which we blogged about here, contains [...]

[Read more →]

TweetThe Employment Law Group® law firm is quoted in the lead story in The National Law Journal titled “Financial Reform Includes New Whistleblower Program.”  The article reports on the whistleblower protection provisions in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, which we blogged about here.  The article states in part: However, employment and whistleblower [...]

[Read more →]

TweetRecognizing that robust whistleblower protection is critical to preventing another financial crisis, Congress included in the Dodd-Frank financial services reform bill (H.R. 4173) numerous provisions designed to encourage whistleblowing and to provide robust protection from retaliation.  These provisions create monetary awards for whistleblowers who provide original information to the SEC or CFTC, strengthen the whistleblower [...]

[Read more →]

TweetOn April 6, 2010, OSHA ordered the New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJT) to reinstate a rail worker and pay him over $500,000 for retaliation he suffered as a result of missing work due to a job related illness.  In February 2008, the Complainant witnessed a contractor being electrocuted and burned to death after coming into [...]

[Read more →]

TweetOn April 1, 2010, Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Tureck found that BB&T violated the whistleblower provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and ordered the bank to reinstate Amy Stroupe, awarding her approximately three years of back pay.  Stroupe, a corporate fraud investigator, uncovered a $100 million Ponzi scheme funded in part with $20 million of fraudulent [...]

[Read more →]

TweetThe Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 (H.R. 3590) that the House approved on March 21, 2010, creates new whistleblower protections for health care workers and strengthens the coverage of the False Claims Act.  The following is a summary of these provisions and the text of the relevant sections is available here. Section [...]

[Read more →]

TweetOn March 15, 2010, Administrative Law Judge Daniel Leland awarded Cynthia Ferguson over $151,000 including $75,000 in punitive damages, holding that she was terminated in retaliation for refusing to drive in hazardous conditions.  On a cross country trip, Ferguson encountered extremely inclement weather approaching Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Ferguson observed a truck [...]

[Read more →]

TweetOn March 17, 2010, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ordered Tennessee Commerce Bank to reinstate a former chief financial officer and pay more than $1 million for violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.  Former CFO George Fort filed a complaint with OSHA on April 4, 2008 alleging that the bank terminated him in retaliation for [...]

[Read more →]