Complainants Did Not Always Receive Appropriate Investigations Under the Whistleblower Protection Program

摘要

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) created the Whistleblower Protection Program to enforce Section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970, which prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who exercise their rights under the OSH Act which include reporting safety or health violations to OSHA and participating in any proceeding related to an OSHA inspection. Since 1983, OSHA has been assigned whistleblower provisions under 16 additional statutes related to the trucking, nuclear power, pipeline, environmental, rail, consumer product safety, and securities industries. OSHA investigates complaints of discriminatory actions taken against employees who blow the whistle under the OSH Act or any of these additional whistleblower statutes.