by Shane Henson — August 17, 2011—Facilities managers should be aware of improvements made to the federal Whistleblower Protection Program in light of their involvement in carrying out federal regulations regarding workplace safety and health.
Officials within the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announced that they are implementing additional measures to strengthen the program and are releasing an internal report detailing a recent top-to-bottom review of the program.
OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of 21 statutes protecting employees who report violations of various workplace safety, airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health care reform, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime and securities laws.
Significant changes to the Whistleblower Protection Program include those involving program policy and internal systems. OSHA revised and will soon issue a new edition of the Whistleblower Investigations Manual.This new manual will provide further guidance on the enforcement program to help ensure consistency and quality of investigations. Additionally, the data collection system has been modified and the audit program is being strengthened and expanded to ensure that complaints are properly handled on a timely basis.
