Mother Jones: It's Hard Out Here for a Snitch

[marmar]

It's Hard Out Here for a Snitch
Despite a host of whistleblower-protection laws, the feds rarely punish bosses who retaliate.

— By Myron Levin

Tue Jul. 13, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

A version of this story first appeared at FairWarning.org.


Neal Jorgensen's mistake was taking the government at its word.

In 2004, after he reported hazards at his job with a plastics recycling firm in Preston, Idaho, two things happened right away. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited the plant for multiple violations, and Jorgensen got fired.

It's illegal to fire someone for blowing the whistle on safety violations, so he complained of retaliation, and an OSHA investigation backed him up. At that point, Jorgensen's bosses could have settled his complaint for a paltry amount of back wages, but they refused. So OSHA referred his case to lawyers at the Department of Labor.

Federal law dictates what should have happened next: The secretary of labor is supposed to sue the employer. But the department's lawyers refused. "My employer got away with firing me without any consequences," Jorgensen, 58, told me recently.

Jorgensen's wasn't an isolated case. Over the past 14 years, scores of whistleblowers have seen their claims fall into a black hole because the Office of the Solicitor, Labor's legal arm, wouldn't go after their bosses in court—no matter that OSHA found that these workers had been illegally demoted or fired. From 1995 to 2009, according to government figures, regional solicitors filed a mere 32 whistleblower lawsuits, rejecting 279 other cases referred to them by OSHA.

These workers aren't the only losers in all this. Current and former OSHA investigators say it's harder for the agency to settle ongoing complaints because employers know they won't be sued. The solicitors "want cases that are slam dunks,'' said a frustrated investigator who, like several others I interviewed, spoke on condition of anonymity. "They don't want a case that we could possibly lose…That's just a ridiculous standard.'' ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/osha-whistleblower-protection-retaliation

[midnight]

1. So Osha standards are empty words.

[aquart]

3. Enforcement is everything.

[Solly Mack]

2. k/r

[Soylent Brice]

4. K&R

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. This is an old story

only insofar as both the NLRB and OSHA no longer do their jobs. And when they don't... well them, we can do whatever we want with workers.

[gratuitous]

6. Put this on my list

Things I wish the Obama administration would correct from past neglect: A Department of Labor that addressed the concerns of Labor (including promulgation of card check union elections) and an Occupational Safety and Health Administration that punished violations of occupational safety and health laws and regulations.

But I know I'm being unreasonable and indulging in empty pony-wishing.