Whistleblower Laws

A whistleblower is a person who raises a concern about wrongdoing occurring in an organization or body of people, usually this person would be from that same organization. This misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations, and corruption. Whistleblowers may make their allegations internally (for example, to other people within the accused organization) or externally (to regulators, law enforcement agencies, to the media or to groups concerned with the issues).

Whistleblowers frequently face reprisal - sometimes at the hands of the organization or group which they have accused, sometimes from related organizations, and sometimes under law.


What are Whistleblower Laws?

Whistleblower laws and other laws that that have provisions for employer retaliation protection are enforced by a number of government agencies. For example, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and its divisions enforce several major laws that directly protect whistleblowers or have provisions to shield employees from retaliation, for reporting violations of the laws, refusing to engage in any action made unlawful by the laws, or participating in any proceedings under the laws.


State Whistleblower Laws

In addition to the state laws, there are numerous federal laws with whistleblower protections that apply to public and private employers. An overview of federal provisions can be found on the U.S. Dept. of Labor website at: Compliance Assistance By Law - Whistleblower Protections.

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State Whistleblower Laws


Whistleblower Protections

In the United States, legal protections vary according to the subject matter of the whistleblowing, and sometimes the state in which the case arises. In passing the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Senate Judiciary Committee found that whistleblower protections were dependent on the "patchwork and vagaries" of varying state statutes. Still, a wide variety of federal and state laws protect employees who call attention to violations, help with enforcement proceedings, or refuse to obey unlawful directions.

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Whistleblower - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) and a number of other laws protect workers against retaliation for complaining to their employers, unions, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), or other government agencies about unsafe or unhealthful conditions in the workplace, environmental problems, certain public safety hazards, and certain violations of federal provisions concerning securities fraud, as well as for engaging in other related protected activities. Whistleblowers may not be transferred, denied a raise, have their hours reduced, or be fired or punished in any other way because they have exercised any right afforded to them under one of the laws that protect whistleblowers.

Pursuant to most of these laws, discrimination complaints must be filed as soon as possible - within 30 days of the alleged reprisal. OSHA Area Office staff can explain the protections under the whistleblower laws and deadlines for filing complaints.

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Compliance Assistance By Law - Whistleblower Protections


Legal Acts (United States)

• Whistleblower Protection Act of 2007
• California False Claims Act
• Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA)

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The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog focuses on law and business, and the business of law.

by Wall Street Journal's Law Blog

For the next several years, life for Bradley Birkenfeld will be pretty lousy. Then, pretty much overnight, life could get very, very fun. Private-jet, island-owning, buy-a-sports-team kind of fun.

But Birkenfeld’s whistleblowing, federal authorities admit, ultimately led to over 14,000 UBS clients stepping forward and copping to tax-evasion. “Without Mr. Birkenfeld walking into the door of the Department of Justice in summer of 2007, I doubt this massive fraud scheme would have been discovered by the United States government,” Kevin M. Downing, the Justice Department prosecutor who handled the UBS investigation, wrote in court papers filed in Birkenfeld’s case. Click here for the NYT story on the Birkenfeld situation.

According to the NYT story, for his assistance in cracking the case, Birkenfeld is seeking serious money, pursuant to a 2006 federal whistleblower statute meant to entice people to shine light on tax fraud.

Under a 2006 whistle-blower law, explains the NYT’s Lynnley Browning, informants now stand to collect 15 to 30% of the taxes, fines, penalties and interest ultimately collected by the I.R.S. In the case of UBS, the tally could run into the billions.

Informants who are convicted of “planning” and “initiating” the schemes are not entitled to bounties. But Birkenfeld, is not seeking rewards for money collected from his own clients. Instead, his lawyers are arguing that he is entitled to a reward stemming from the thousands of others who have come forward in recent months about hidden, offshore bank accounts.

The I.R.S. declined to comment on Birkenfeld’s case. But the agency, which did not grant Birkenfeld immunity from prosecution when he came forward, considers Birkenfeld more of a tipster or an informant than a formal whistle-blower, in part because while he described the bank’s dealings, he provided few details on actual clients, according to a senior Justice Department official.

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From Snitch to Rich? The Case of UBS's Brad Birkenfeld