Katz, Marshall & Banks Partner David J. Marshall spoke with Human Resource Executive Online (“HREO”) about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s issuance of proposed regulations for whistleblower investigations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, revising its Whistleblower Investigations Manual for the first time since 2003, and a recent survey conducted by the employer-defense law firm Littler Mendelson regarding employer whistleblower preparedness. Marshall told HREO that OSHA began strengthening its Whistleblower Protection Program after two audits found that whistleblowers won their complaints in only one to two percent of cases. Mr. Marshall said “the OSHA staff was understaffed and overworked. The backlog was huge.”
As a result, said Marshall, OSHA did not always interview whistleblowers, track witnesses, or insist that companies comply with requests for documents. ”OSHA is taking more seriously today the job of protecting whistleblower rights,” Marshall said. “That’s a right Congress wrote and OSHA is enforcing.”