In his first speech as acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Raj Date pointed to shortcomings in the way mortgage companies service their loans, and vowed that the bureau would use its enforcement powers to crack down on fraud. Mortgage companies such as Countrywide which practiced large scale fraud, such as by doctoring [...]

OSHA’s updated investigations manual strengthens protections for whistleblowers who were retaliated against by making it easier for them to obtain full compensatory damages, including compensation for mental distress due to the adverse action.  The new manual also specifies that damages are to be available for all OSHA’s statutes, including those in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which [...]

The DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has released a newly updated manual for investigations of whistleblower retaliation. The manual, which replaces a previous edition from 2003, is part of a larger effort by OSHA to improve the handling of retaliation claims. OSHA is responsible for investigating employees’ whistleblower complaints under 21 federal statutes, ranging [...]

On August 29, the Department of Labor published a final rule regarding the displacement of service workers during changes of contract, implementing a policy initiative President Obama started shortly after taking office.  The rule states that service contracts must have a clause that requires successor contractors to offer displaced workers the same positions for which [...]

A September 12, 2011, United States District Court opinion issued by Obama appointee Judge Amy Jackson weighed in on unsettled issues in whistleblower retaliation cases regarding the plaintiff’s burden of proof and the permissibility of naming individual defendants in connection with the assertion of a wrongful discharge claim. The case involves Jonathan Myers, a former [...]

The Government Accountability Office recently criticized a newly revamped IRS program which rewards whistleblowers for reporting corporate tax fraud.

The Department of Labor Administrative Review Board has affirmed the finding of an Administrative Law Judge that a trucker was illegally terminated for complying with safety provisions of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 (STAA), though the ARB has remanded the decision to the ALJ for reconsideration of his inadequately explained calculation of back [...]

Readers of the Corporate Whistleblower Blog will also be interested in learning about the whistleblower-reward program operated by the Internal Revenue Service.  The program provides awards to individuals who provide the IRS with information leading to collection of unpaid taxes in amounts over $2 million.  This past April, the tax agency paid $4.5 million – [...]

Late last month, OSHA ordered Union Pacific Railroad to pay three employees more than $615,000 for the company’s violations of the Federal Rail Safety Act (FRSA), which prohibits rail employers from retaliating against workers who file safety complaints, report work-related injuries, refuse to break Federal laws, cooperate with safety and security investigations, and more.  According [...]