On March 30, 1999, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") launched a pilot whistleblower outreach program to educate workers about their right to report safety and health problems without fear of reprisal from their employers. In a speech in Cleveland at the Ohio Safety and Health Congress, OSHA Administrator Charles N. Jeffress announced the new pilot program. According to Jeffress, the program’s goal is to raise public awareness of government protections for whistleblowers on safety matters, and is aimed at both employees and employers.
OSHA intends to reach workers with the message that federal protections are available for workers whose employers have punished them by demotion, transfer or termination for pointing out potentially harmful work conditions. "A lot of employees are afraid to complain because they’re afraid they’ll lose a job or some action will be taken," Jeffress said. "The public education campaign hopefully will reassure people that they should feel free to complain, that there is a law that protects them."
The new program is targeted at workers in OSHA’s Midwest region, which includes Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin, and may later be expanded to other parts of the country. During the pilot program, OSHA will distribute a tri-lingual brochure written in English, Polish and Spanish that describes whistleblower laws. In addition, OSHA will offer cards spelling out workers’s rights under the law and steps they can take when they have health and safety concerns. OSHA will also reach out to workers through public service announcements, radio ads and labor unions, and by providing information to organizations concerned with worker’s rights.
According to Jeffress, OSHA plans to reach out to employers because it wants "employers to know it’s illegal to discriminate or to take punitive actions against people who complain about safety and health conditions." To that end, OSHA will distribute whistleblower information through employer groups and trade associations. Jeffress warned employers "who’d rather fire workers than fix problems: Forget it."
The pilot program apparently is a response to recommendations made by a July 1998 OSHA task force. After finding that knowledge about whistleblower protections was "severely lacking" among employers and workers, the task force recommended increasing public awareness of such protections. The task force also recommended legislative changes to strengthen whistleblower protections under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The legislative agenda of the Clinton Administration and OSHA includes proposals to extend the time for filing a whistleblower-based discrimination complaint and to allow employees to proceed in front of a federal administrative law judge. In addition, in March, Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) introduced a package of job safety reform bills to expand OSHA coverage and broaden existing whistleblower protections.
The message is clear: OSHA is working on several fronts to expand protections for workers who report health and safety violations, and to educate employees and employers about their rights and responsibilities in this regard.
The information provided herein is for general guidance on matters of interest only. While every effort has been made to ensure the information provided herein is accurate and timely, no decision should be made or action taken on the basis of information without first consulting an Epstein Becker & Green, P.C. professional
