Employees who report wrongdoing are not adequately protected.
WHERE WE STAND:
Stronger federal protections would be a fitting tribute to the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Whistleblowers protect the health and safety of working Americans by exposing unsafe conditions. They save lives. Yet some employers punish and fire whistleblowers. The federal government should protect them, but often doesn't.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Labor, is required to investigate whistleblower complaints under 19 different federal laws on workplace safety, mining, trucking, railroads, gas pipelines, nuclear facilities, consumer product safety and environmental protection.
A new study by the Goverrnment Accountability Office, which conducts investigations for Congress, found that during the past 20 years, the "Labor Department has not provided adequate management attention to the whistleblower program."
"In hearings in both the House and Senate on a number of recent workplace tragedies -- such as the Upper Big Branch mine, the Tesoro refinery explosion and the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion -- Congress heard how workers' voices were routinely silenced from speaking on significant problems for fear of job loss," a congressional press release stated.
If whistleblowers had been protected, those tragedies might have been prevented.
Protecting whistleblowers is critical, the new report states. Government safety regulators cannot inspect every jobsite every day.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., one of the Congress members who requested the report, commented: "I will continue to work with my colleagues and the Secretary of Labor to modernize anti-retaliation protections as part of the Robert C. Byrd Miners Safety and Health Act."
On May 20, five weeks before his death, Byrd participated vigorously in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, questioning Massey CEO Don Blankenship about the UBB tragedy.
"Several times, Massey mines have been cited for safety violations in the past months.... Twenty-nine men are now dead, dead, dead -- simply because they went to work that morning," Byrd said.
The Byrd Act "would modernize 40-year-old anti-retaliation provisions in the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, which is the oldest and least protective out of the 19 whistleblower laws administered by the Department of Labor," Miller said.
The GAO report stated, "For over 20 years, we have reported that OSHA has focused too little attention on the whistleblower program.... We found that OSHA has done little to ensure that investigators have the necessary training and equipment to do their jobs, and that it lacks sufficient internal controls to ensure that the whistleblower program operates as intended."
We hope Congress takes a close look at the new GAO report and acts to protect workers willing to expose dangers on the job. West Virginia's Legislature should also look at how effectively it protects whistleblowers in this state.
Passing stronger whistleblower protections would be a tribute to West Virginia's late senator.
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