Monthly Archives: May 2015
New Jersey Transit Pays $700,000 in Whistleblower Suit Settlement
New Jersey Transit paid nearly $700,000 to settle a federal whistleblower complaint filed by one of its conductors. The conductor claimed he was the victim of retaliation from the agency after he saw a worker electrocuted and decided to take the next day off work. The worker suffered fatal burns in the accident, which reportedly […]
Senate Approves Whistleblower Bill for the Auto Industry
The U.S. Senate passed the first-ever piece of whistleblower legislation specific to automotive safety April 28. The proposed measure provides incentives to whistleblowers within the auto industry to come forward about known safety issues. It was developed in the wake of the controversies surrounding Takata air bags and General Motors ignition switches over the last […]
EPA Criticized for Persecution of 9/11 Dust Whistleblower
A judge from the U.S. Department of Labor rebuked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its concealment of evidence in a case from several years ago against a senior chemist who was wrongfully terminated. The chemist, Cate Jenkins, had worked as an environmental scientist with the agency for 31 years before she lost her job […]
Proposed Legislation Could Punish Those Who Retaliate Against VA Whistleblowers
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been the subject of controversy for much of the past year after a variety of whistleblowers exposed a nationwide problem of extremely long wait times for veterans needing treatment and benefits. Unfortunately, many of those VA whistleblowers suffered retaliation by management after exposing the problems within the agency. […]
SEC Announces $600,000 Award to Whistleblower in First-Ever Retaliation Payout
Since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower award program was launched more than three years ago, the agency has handed out payments of more than $50 million to 17 different whistleblowers. For the most part, these payments have been provided in cases involving fraud. On Tuesday, April 28, the SEC announced that for the […]
OSHA Requests $39 Million in New Funding for 2016 Fiscal Year
The 2016 Fiscal Year budget proposals set forth by the U.S. Department of Labor indicate that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has requested an additional $49 million for its 2016 budget. That money would go toward hiring 90 new full-time employees, 60 of whom would specifically be dedicated to federal enforcement tasks. Of […]
New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority Fined for Whistleblower Harassment
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has had plenty of public troubles lately, the most recent of which has resulted in a fine of more than $50,000 after the agency was found guilty of harassing a whistleblower. The fine has its roots in an incident from August 2012. At that time, inspectors from the state […]
Whistleblower Files Lawsuit Against JC Penney
A former part-time employee of department store JC Penney filed a retaliation claim, saying they were fired after alerting authorities that the retailer was overcharging its customers. This is just the most recent bad news for JC Penney, whose stock fell sharply after it announced its 2014 profit numbers and several key officers left the […]
