UN Tribunal Weakens Whistleblowers’ Rights, Disregards U.S. Appropriations Law
The United Nations has significantly weakened the rights of its own employees in a decision that overturned a lower court ruling in favor of GAP advocacy client James Wasserstrom. While assigned to a peacekeeping operation in Kosovo, Wasserstrom blew the whistle on what he alleged was a conspiracy to pay a $500 million kickback to senior U.N. and Kosovo officials. The U.N. Ethics Office failed to protect him from retaliation, prompting him to file a case with the institution’s lower court, the Dispute Tribunal. While the Dispute Tribunal found in his favor, the United Nations Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) overturned the decision over Labor Day weekend – eviscerating U.N. whistleblowers’ ability to challenge the decisions of the Ethics Office before the U.N.’s formal justice system.
New York Times: What the Arbitration Panel Didn’t Want to Hear
This article details the saga of Deutsche Bank whistleblower Sean Martin, who faced retaliation after reporting that colleagues had allowed preferred hedge fund clients to listen in on confidential market commentary. Martin brought an arbitration case against the firm in 2012, but the first set of hearings didn’t occur until March of this year. The three-member panel hearing his case has repeatedly excluded evidence that Martin’s lawyer deemed crucial, raising questions of fairness in the process.
inewsource: Whistleblower Nurse Awarded Damages in San Diego Hospice Suit
Lori Rachac, a registered nurse who was fired from San Diego Hospice in 2011, alleged staff were encouraged to find ways to admit people into care who weren’t eligible. She filed a whistleblower lawsuit and could receive as much as a million dollars depending on the final settlement between the federal government and the now bankrupt hospice.