Whistleblower Law Blog

TweetLast week CBS News reported that Jay Palmer, a former principal consultant for Infosys Limited, filed a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against the information technology firm, sparking a federal investigation by the Department of State and Homeland Security and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). Palmer alleges that Infosys used the H-1B and B-1 visa programs to commit [...]

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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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TweetLast week the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ordered Rowan Business Forms, a Salisbury, North Carolina-based commercial printing company, to reinstate and pay over $83,000 in back wages and compensatory damages to a former truck driver after OSHA found reasonable cause to believe that Rowan violated the whistleblower provision of [...]

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TweetElmwood Place, Ohio Police Sergeant Gary Darty filed a lawsuit two weeks ago in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio against Chief William Peskin, who Darty claims retaliated against him after he disclosed to local officials that Peskin had engaged in police misconduct. Darty wrote a letter to the Elmwood Place [...]

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TweetRoy Fastabend, a welder and inspector, alleges that he was fired after reporting that in order to save time and money, a subcontractor cut corners in the construction of the new stadium that will be home to the Florida Marlins.  Fastabend claims to have witnessed  Mike Garcia, a fellow inspector , routinely ignoring engineering specifications [...]

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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 [...]

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TweetThe U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced its conclusion last week that the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) violated the Whistleblower Protection Act when it retaliated against Diem-Thi Le for blowing the whistle on fraudulent DCAA practices. Ms. Le worked for the DCAA as a Senior Auditor for 17 years. In September 2005 Le [...]

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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 [...]

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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., [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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, [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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