Whistleblower Protection

What laws protect whistleblowers?

A variety of federal and state laws protect people who report illegal actions of their employers and/or refuse to engage in illegal actions at work.

Florida Whistleblower’s Act

This protects covered employees who object to or refuse to participate in illegal activity, as well as those who notify their employer in writing of their intent to disclose illegal activity.

Employees who cooperate with authorities investigating illegal activity are also protected.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

This law protects whistleblower employees who disclose violations of SEC rules and regulations and violations of federal laws related to fraud against shareholders.

Dodd-Frank Act

This law protects whistleblower employees who report a potential securities law violation to the SEC as well as those who participate in a related EC investigation.

False Claims Act

This law protects whistleblower employees of government contractors and grantees and protects a broad range of whistleblower disclosures.

Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA)

The OSHA prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for exercising protected rights.

These rights include:

• • Filing an OSHA complaint
  • Participating in an inspection or talking to an inspector
  • Seeking access to employer exposure and injury records
  • Reporting an injury
  • Raising a safety or health complaint with the employer.

OSHA’s whistleblower authority protects workers from retaliation under twenty-two federal laws, including:

• • Occupational, environmental, and nuclear safety laws
  • Transportation industry laws
  • Consumer and investor protection laws

Are you being harassed because of whistleblower activity?

As a whistleblower, you may have reported illegal activities or fraud on the part of your employer.

While this is often financial fraud, it can relate to other activities such as sales and marketing, Human Resources activities, or other illegal employer conduct in the workplace.

Broadly, it is broken down into four main areas:

• Improper use of authority
• Gross neglect
• Abuse of duty
• Gross waste of funds

Examples of cases that commonly require whistleblower protection include unfavorable treatment for:

• HR professionals for refusing to take part in discriminatory hiring practices
• Employees after they report a case of sexual harassment or age discrimination
• Finance professionals who refuse to process fraudulent loan deals
• Healthcare employees who refuse to participate in Medicare fraud

Standing up against this is not a reason for your employer to retaliate against you but it does happen regularly.

No employee should suffer being fired, being discriminated against or any other adverse retaliation from their employer for trying to do the right thing.

Common types of retaliatory treatment include:

• Termination of employment
• Being demoted
• Being forced to quit
• Having hours or wages restricted
• Not receiving benefits that other employees receive
• Threatening behavior

The laws can protect you against such actions from your employer.

Get the right legal assistance as it can be complicated

The whistleblower laws do include many exceptions.

You won’t be expected to know all of these but a good whistleblower protection lawyer will be able to advise you.

You may be able to:

• Take legal action to protect against retaliatory practices from your employer
• Claim damages to compensate you for any financial losses, emotional distress, suffering, etc.

Bear in mind that blowing the whistle on an employer affects their reputation.

Reporting violations by an employer can also, unfortunately, harm your own reputation as far as future employment goes.

So, whistleblowing is not a decision to be taken without solid legal advice.

As an experienced Florida whistleblower protection lawyer, I can advise you and help assess your case.

I will help you take the legal steps for protection, if necessary.

Next steps

From here, we need to:

1. Assess your claim. Start by booking a free phone consultation below.
2. Decide whether to pursue a complaint after our consultation.
3. File a complaint or lawsuit with a local or federal agency, or state or federal court.
4. Prepare the paperwork so that we can draft the complaint or lawsuit.