Federal Employees
If you are a federal employee suffering whistleblowing retaliation and want to know your rights, contact us. Our attorneys are committed to giving you the information and tools you need to choose the right path for your case, to maximize your leverage as you try to save your job and career, and to persuasively present your case to the right federal authorities to preserve and protect your rights. During an initial consultation, we can evaluate whether you may have a whistleblowing retaliation claim. We can advise you how to pursue your claim, identify deadlines, and represent you in the appropriate procedure.
Sarbanes-Oxley & SEC Whistleblowing
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, also known as SOX, protects whistleblowers who provide information about securities fraud, shareholder fraud, bank fraud, violations of SEC rules or regulations, mail fraud, or wire fraud. Specifically, the law covers whistleblowing that seeks to reveal a violation of law that would negatively impact shareholders or investors. Read more »
Federal Government Contractors
The 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) protects employees of government contractors from reprisal or retaliation for whistleblowing, exposing the employer’s wrongdoing. The False Claims Act (FCA) gives similar protections and, in addition, encourages whistleblowing by rewarding individuals who report fraud against the government with bounties or finders’ fees, called qui tam or relator claims. Read more »
Equal Employment Opportunity Retaliation
There are also laws that protect employees from reprisal for engaging in other types of activities, such as disclosing illegal practices, violations of the law, or gross mismanagement. For more information, please see our section on whistleblower reprisal.
The Occupational Safety and Health Whistleblowers Laws
There are more than twenty laws administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that protect employees who blow the whistle and report violations of workplace and public safety laws. These laws make it illegal for a company to take an adverse action against an employee who makes a protected disclosure about workplace or public safety. Read more »
D.C. Government Whistleblowing Rights
The DC whistleblower protections apply to all District government agencies, including independent agencies, DC Public Schools, the University of D.C. Board of Trustees and the DC Housing Authority. Read more »
Virginia State Employee Whistleblowing Rights
The Virginia State grievance procedure offers protections for employees who are subjected to adverse personnel actions because of their whistleblowing activities. The procedure says that a personnel decision, such as termination or suspension without pay, cannot be based on “acts of retaliation for participating in the grievance process, complying with any law or reporting a violation of such law to a governmental authority, seeking to change any law before Congress or the General Assembly, reporting an incidence of fraud, abuse, or gross mismanagement, or exercising any right otherwise protected by law.” Virginia Code § 2.2-3003. The employee has to file a grievance under the Virginia State grievance process within 30 days.
To learn more about the Virginia State Grievance Process, see here .