Whistleblower Protection Pilot Program Launches

There’s a new way for officials to handle whistleblower complaints and it comes with the recent announcement of a new dispute resolution pilot program of the WhislteBlower Protection Program. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the new program will now help officials to settle these complaints in a voluntary and cooperative manner. The pilot program is going to start off in two of OSHA’s regions and will deal with early resolution and mediation tactics. When a whistleblower complaint is filed in one of these regions, the parties involved will be notified about the resolution options and will be offered help from an OSHA coordinator to use the new methods to try and resolve the problem.
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“OSHA is committed to fair, effective and timely enforcement of the whistleblower laws delegated to us by Congress,” said Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.

Our Boston workers’ compensation attorneys understand that OSHA is working to figure out how to deal with these kinds of claims in a quick and effective manner. The problem is that these kinds of disputes should never take place on the job. Employees in the country are granted with very specific rights and those rights need to be protected. Workers are granted with the right to speak up if there’s something wrong on the job. They’re allowed to speak up about any illegal activity they observe, about any kind of retaliation that has taken place and about any and all safety concerns that they might have on the job.

Whistleblower Protection Programs Help to Stop:

-Firing
-Demoting
-Blacklisting
-Reduction in Pay
-Threats
-Denial of Benefits
-Unnecessary Disciplining.

-Failure to Hire or Rehire
-Unnecessary Reassignment
-Denying Overtime
-Denying Deserved Promotions
-Reduction in Hours
San Francisco and Chicago will be the two regions that are going to participate in OSHA’s pilot program. The Chicago Regional Office is in charge of dealing with whistleblower investigations with Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and Illinois. The San Francisco Regional Office is in charge of dealing with whistleblower investigations filed in American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Nevada, Hawaii, California and Arizona.

Every year, there are close to 3,000 whistleblower complaints filed throughout the United States. The sad news is that some people are treated unfairly on the job because of speaking out about poor working conditions and they never even step up and file a complaint or fight back. You have rights and those rights need to be protected, but it’s important that you know your rights!

Currently, OSHA’s whistleblower provisions cover 22 statutes. All of these laws help to cover millions of workers throughout the country. Unfortunately, these provisions aren’t always upheld. If you feel that you’re being discriminated or treated unfairly on the job because you brought something up to the company or the employer’s attention, you’re urged to contact an experienced attorney to help you to preserve your rights and to help you to collect the compensation for your unfair treatment.

If you or someone you love has been injured on the job, call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your workers’ compensation claim — (617) 777-7777.

More Blog Entries:

Workplace Violence in Massachusetts Leading On-the-Job Killer in 2011, Massachusetts Workers Compensation Lawyers Blog, October 7, 2012

Work Accidents in 2011 – Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Attorneys Review Trends and Highlights, Massachusetts Workers Compensation Lawyers Blog, October 2, 2012

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