Compilation of Federal Whistleblower Protection Statutes

"Overview

In general, whistleblowers are employees who report misconduct or illegal activity committed by their employers.

This report is a compilation of federal whistleblower and employee protection statutes. In addition to identifying laws that protect whistleblowers from retaliation, this report includes employee protection laws that prohibit retaliation against employees who engage in various protected activities, such as participating in an investigation or filing a complaint.

For each law, the popular name of the Act with a whistleblower or employee protection provision is provided. If the whistleblower protection provision was amended after original enactment, the date of those changes is noted. The United States Code or public law citation for the provision and an excerpt of the text of the provision is included. Listed below this text are protected individuals or classes identified in the provision(s). Lastly, the original congressional committee(s) to receive or consider the legislation are identified.

Where statutory text falls outside the scope of the topic, CRS has deleted portions of statutory provisions and replaced them with ellipses symbols (...) standing alone within a passage.

Methodology

CRS identified these statutes by reviewing various internal CRS products and federal government resources, and by searching the United States Code Service on Lexis Advance and the Statutes-atLarge on ProQuest Congressional for variations of (whistleblower or (employee w/2 protection) or (((person or employer or employee or witness) /20 (fire or fired or discharg! or discriminat! or demot! or “personnel action” or retaliat!)) /20 (person or employees or applicants or witness))).

This report uses the official version of the United States Code on the House Law Revision Counsel’s website.1

The committees identified for each law were found by searching Congress.gov and ProQuest Congressional for the public law number and reviewing committee reports. CRS identified persons or classes covered by the law from the Act’s text.

Limitations

CRS searched and reviewed a range of laws to provide an extensive list of statutes. It is nonetheless possible that some relevant laws do not appear in this report for various reasons, including the following:

 Due to variations in database search functionalities, the searches may not have captured all relevant authorities currently in effect.

 Other unofficial versions of the United States Code may retrieve different results from various databases.

 The criteria used to identify statutes may have excluded relevant authorities that did not contain terms used in the database search, particularly if they did not expressly refer to whistleblower, discharg!, discriminat!, demot!, “personnel action” or retaliate..."
Whistleblowers 

Speaking Up for Workers on National Whistleblower Appreciation Day

"Last summer, two truck drivers employed by an Oklahoma City roofing company shared a serious safety concern with their manager: They reported that the tires on the company truck they were driving were damaged, and that they were concerned not only about their own safety, but also the safety of others on the road. Until the issue was addressed, they weren't comfortable driving the vehicle. The employer’s response? Firing both drivers. 

The whistleblower division of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated and found that the employer violated the Surface Transportation Assistance Act, one of more than 20 whistleblower statutes we enforce. We ordered the company to reinstate both drivers, and to pay them more than $23,000 in back wages and $70,000 in punitive damages. The company is also required to train managers and employees on workers’ rights under the STAA to help prevent any future illegal retaliation against employees. 

Under federal law, workers have the right to raise concerns if they believe their rights are being violated in the workplace.  

Similarly, the statute enforced by the department’s Mine Safety and Health Administration provides strong protections for miners. Under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, miners have the right to report hazardous conditions and can refuse to work in unsafe conditions. Miners may not be fired, demoted, harassed, intimidated, transferred, refused employment, discriminated against or suffer any loss of wages for exercising their rights under the Mine Act. These are critical protections that allow miners to actively participate in the safety of their workplace, and MSHA takes enforcement of hazard and discrimination complaints seriously. 

And similar rights apply to pay concerns, too – If employers don’t pay workers all the wages they’ve earned, they can speak up without fear of retaliation. The department’s Wage and Hour Division enforces laws on the federal minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping and child labor requirements, as well as laws about working conditions and payment for agricultural and migrant workers. The division protects workers subject to wage garnishment, too. Any worker protected by any of the laws that the division enforces is protected by their anti-retaliation provisions. View our online resources to determine whether a particular law applies. We enforce the law regardless of a worker’s immigration status, and can communicate with workers in more than 200 languages..."
Whistleblower 

Whistleblower Protections Under Federal Law: An Overview

"This report provides an overview of key aspects of the 18 selected federal statutes applicable to individuals in certain private-sector industries. It focuses on the protections provided to employees who believe they have been subject to retaliation, rather than on how or where alleged misconduct should be disclosed. In addition, the report also includes an overview of the Whistleblower Protection Act. While state law may also provide whistleblower protections for employees, this report focuses only on the aforementioned federal statutory provisions..."