Browsing: Whistleblowers

The MSPB and the Federal Circuit have made it clear that the protection from retaliation provided under the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) is very broad. Activities that one may not associate with whistleblowing, and even employees who do not make whistleblowing disclosures, may be covered by the WPA. The WPA generally provides whistleblower protections to an employee or applicant who discloses information that the person reasonably believes to reveal “any violation of any law, rule, or regulation,” or “gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.”…

When the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in October released the results of the 2014 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, there was one very significant statistic the agency failed to highlight: 20.4 percent of federal employees reported they did not believe they could disclose a suspected violation of any law, rule or regulation without fear of reprisal. That marked the highest percentage of respondents (in the weighted results) who said they could not blow the whistle without fear of retaliation since the first such survey, originally known as the Federal Human Capital Survey, in 2002. It is ironic that less than…

In response to news reports that management at the Department of Veterans Affairs punished staff members at VA facilities who criticized the agency’s deceptive patient waitlist practices, Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake asked the agency’s acting inspector general to investigate claims of retaliation against whistleblowers. I believe anyone reviewing allegations of whistleblower retaliation – especially at agencies with large populations of disabled employees – should be on the lookout for adverse actions less common among non-disabled employees. In fact, the VA employs more non-seasonal, full-time, permanent disabled individuals than any other federal executive branch (not including the Department of…