Associated Press: VA Chief Pledges End to Whistleblower Retaliation
Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Sloan Gibson has pledged to end whistleblower retaliation throughout the department, citing the importance of listening to employees in order to better address problems. GAP coalition partner POGO (the Project On Government Oversight) said Monday that it has received close to 800 complaints about wrongdoings at VA offices. The VA Office of Inspector General has already launched 87 investigations.
Since its establishment as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Whistleblower Program has encouraged insiders with knowledge of violations to come forward. However, as noted attorney Jordan Thomas of Labaton Sucharow writes in this blog piece, many individuals are still deterred from blowing the whistle due to questionable corporate legal maneuvers.
In response to these measures from corporations, GAP and Labaton Sucharow submitted a petition to the SEC urging it to clarify protections offered to whistleblowers. Additional media coverage of this development can be found at Inside Counsel, American Lawyer and Compliance Week.
Wall Street Journal: Don’t Discount Repeat Whistleblowers
The chairman of the SEC, Mary Jo White, is publicly urging companies not to disregard whistleblower claims on the basis that an individual has made repeated allegations.
Associated Press: Court – Whistleblower Law Doesn’t Protect Interns
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled a state law protecting health care workers who blow the whistle only applies to paid employees. This ruling came in response to the firing of an unpaid intern at the Medical College of Wisconsin who made an ethics complaint.
Wall Street Journal: Connecticut Supreme Court to Revisit Protection for Whistleblowers
The head of valuations at financial behemoth UBS’s real-estate investment arm has stated he was fired from his job after confronting his employer about allegedly overvalued properties. The employee, whose unit was in charge of determining the market value of UBS real estate and mortgage investments, has sued for whistleblower retaliation. If the Connecticut Supreme Court rules in favor of UBS, that state’s whistleblowers could lose certain protections under existing law.
Ross Cohen-Kristiansen is a Communications Intern for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.