Whistleblowing and Retaliation

Memo
23-185
Wednesday, September 20, 2023

The Securities and Exchange Commission has fined a company $225,000 for using a separation agreement that the agency alleges deprived departing employees of being able to exercise their “bounty hunter” rights under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law


Memo
23-122
Monday, June 19, 2023

The High Court has ruled that a company can be liable under the FCA for making a false claim against the government if the company knew or should have known that the claim was false, even if the claim was objectively reasonable.


Memo
23-050
Wednesday, March 8, 2023

The four federal agencies with statutory authority over federal whistleblower protection/bounty hunter laws report that activity increased in fiscal year 2022 as compared to the previous year, with two of those agencies receiving a record number of t


Memo
23-048
Monday, March 6, 2023

MEMBER FEEDBACK REQUESTED. The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued an Interim Final Rule spelling out the procedures under which it handles whistleblower retaliation complaints filed under the Criminal Antitrus


Memo
23-026
Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Coming nearly 20 years after a similar ruling by another federal appeals court, the D.C. Circuit has ruled that the whistleblower anti-retaliation provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act do not apply extraterritorially.


Memo
22-211
Monday, November 7, 2022

A bill approved by the House of Representatives before lawmakers recessed for the elections would expand whistleblower retaliation protection for employees of the federal government. Such measures sometimes set a precedent for possible changes to the


Memo
22-170
Friday, September 9, 2022

The Securities and Exchange Commission has finalized changes to its “bounty hunter” regulations that arguably will allow corporate whistleblowers to claim even larger bounty awards.


Memo
22-160
Wednesday, August 24, 2022

A decision by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals finding that a plaintiff alleging unlawful retaliation under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act must show that his or her employer acted with discriminatory intent is at odds with rulings by two other federal appeal


Memo
22-060
Tuesday, March 29, 2022

In what appears to be the first state law of its kind, New York has enacted a measure to “clarify that release of personnel records to discount victims of workplace discrimination counts as a retaliatory action under the [state’s] Human Rights Law.”


Memo
22-043
Thursday, March 3, 2022

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reports that based on “tips” filed by corporate whistleblowers, it awarded a whopping $564 million in bounty hunter awards last year, more than all previous years combined.


Memo
21-228
Monday, November 22, 2021

The three agencies with primary responsibility for enforcing federal employment laws have launched a new initiative to devote added attention to enforcing anti-retaliation protections.


Memo
21-088
Tuesday, April 27, 2021

CWC is pleased to present its new “Catalog of Federal Bounty Hunter Laws” summarizing those programs that allow a whistleblower to share in monetary penalties awarded for providing information that leads to a conviction of wrongdoing against the gove


Memo
21-079
Tuesday, April 13, 2021

The U.S. isn’t the only global jurisdiction that has laws protecting a whistleblower from retaliation. In the 27 nations that make up the European Union, a comprehensive new whistleblower protection law is scheduled to go into effect this coming Dece


Memo
21-075
Thursday, April 8, 2021

In the six years since we prepared our original federal whistleblower protection law catalog, Congress has enacted three more such laws. We’re pleased to present an updated catalog.


Memo
21-047
Wednesday, March 3, 2021

The four federal agencies that handle whistleblower complaints and bounty hunter tips generally reported an increase in activity last year over the previous year, in some cases logging record-breaking numbers.


Memo
20-247
Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Congress has given final approval to yet another federal whistleblower retaliation protection bill, in this case prohibiting an employer from retaliating against an employee who reports an alleged criminal antitrust violation to the government. Presi


Memo
20-199
Tuesday, October 6, 2020

The SEC has amended its whistleblower retaliation/bounty hunter regulations issued under the Dodd-Frank law to conform them to a 2018 Supreme Court ruling. The revised regulations contain clarifications that we believe employers will find helpful.


Memo
20-196
Thursday, October 1, 2020

The appeals court ruled that even though the law in effect at the time referred only to Defense Department contractors, it should be interpreted to cover subcontractors as well, thus allowing a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit to proceed.


Memo
20-165
Friday, August 21, 2020

On rehearing, the full appeals court reversed an earlier panel ruling that had allowed a retaliation suit filed under Title VII by an HR Manager to proceed.


Memo
20-115
Friday, June 12, 2020

The Dodd-Frank financial reform law allows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to give bounty hunter awards to whistleblowers who report fraud against the government. The SEC recently awarded its biggest bounty ever to a single whistleblower,


Memo
20-099
Friday, May 22, 2020

This ruling by the Sixth Circuit is consistent with those issued by other federal appeals courts that in order to prevail on a claim of “participation” retaliation under Title VII, the plaintiff must be able to show that the claim is tied to a charge


Memo
20-078
Friday, April 24, 2020

This federal appeals court ruling serves as a reminder that it does not take much for a plaintiff to make out a valid claim of retaliatory harassment under Title VII.


Memo
20-036
Friday, February 21, 2020

The four different federal agencies that handle whistleblower complaints filed under more than 20 federal laws have released enforcement statistics covering the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2019. The data are consistent with the previous y


Memo
19-164
Friday, August 16, 2019

Although it doesn’t get a lot of attention, the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act protects a member of the armed services from discrimination based on his or her service. This recent ruling illustrates how a manager’s anti-mil


Memo
19-143
Friday, July 19, 2019

In a welcome development, OFCCP has taken out many of the new and burdensome requirements that it was proposing to add to its compliance evaluation scheduling letters, which are now at OMB for final approval. CWC will be filing comments, and we’d lik


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