Federal Whistleblower Laws: Are They Working?

The federal whistleblower law exists to protect employees when they "blow the whistle"

on their employer in instances where employer breaks the law or violate employees' inherent rights. Recent incidents across the United States have begged many to question if the current laws offer sufficient protection for whistleblowers. In fact, there have been several proposals that look to either strengthen or better define protections for whistleblowers in the US.

First, lets look briefly at the history of United Sates Federal Whistleblower protection laws. The Lloyd-La Follette Act of 1912 guaranteed federal employees the right to provide information to Congress, and was the first US law passed to specifically protect whistleblowers. Many years later, several environmental laws were passed that included whistleblower protection, they were: the Clean Water Act (1972), Safe Drinking Water Act (1974), Solid Waste Disposal Act (1976), Toxic Substances Control Act (1976), Energy Reorganization Act (1978), the Superfund Law (1980), and the Clean Air Act (1990). Several more employee-centric protection acts soon followed, including: the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (1982), the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act (2002), AIR 21 (2002). The big chief of whistleblower laws was passed in 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which afforded protection to corporate whistleblowers.

The above may seem like both an extensive and compressive list, but many feel that the protections afforded by these laws are simply not adequate. In the aftermath of BP's oil leak catastrophe, many public figures are asking for explicit protections for offshore oil workers. Charles Melancon, a Louisiana Representative, is one such man leading the charge. Rep. Melancon believes that the Gulf Coast region "might not be going through this traumatic episode'' if offshore-drilling workers believed they would be legally federally sheltered.

Consulting with a Louisiana Jones Act Attorney, he explained that while the Jones Act affords some protection to seaman, many workers feel that they will be blackballed by the industry if they bring suit against their employer. A Maritime Attorney summarized the workers' concerns a different way, saying that these workers are afraid of the consequences of seeking damages when they are injured on the job, imagine the kind of consequences they fear from blowing the whistle.

The tragic passing of eleven valiant employees on board the Deepwater Horizon begs the question: is it now time to demand federal whistleblower protection for offshore workers? "We need to hold these companies accountable,'' Melancon said in a public statement. While many Gulf Coast residents hope that BP is held accountable through lawsuits brought on by Louisiana Jones Act Attorneys on behalf of the victims of this awful tragedy, almost everyone agrees that this event should have been prevented in the first place.

Perhaps the BP disaster, and the resulting public fallout will finally bring the sweeping change that the public now feels is necessary to protect us from the corporations that have such a drastic impact on our lives. Only time will tell.

by: George Murphy

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