In a ruling that's sure to scuttle the urges of would-be whistleblowers who seek to expose wrongdoing by employers, an appeals court has allowed Boeing to fire two employees who leaked documents to the press that made the company look bad.
Wired reports that the fired whistleblowers, who were canned in 2008 after they released documents that seemed to indicate the company lacked safeguards for computer security, sought protection under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which was meant to protect investors from secretive wrongdoing by publicly-held companies. A panel of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges ruled that the law only protects the reporting of information to authorities, not the press.
The judges also noted that other whistleblower protection laws, which prevent businesses from firing employees for leaking info to the media, didn't protect the employees because their info didn't reveal "gross mismanagement, gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority or a substantial and specific danger to the public health or safety."
If you've ever stuck out your neck to tell on an employer, share your tale in the comments.
from the Consumerist
4 comments:
What a stupid move to tell the media. They should went straight to the Federal Bureau of investigators.
You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you."
— Maya Angelou
While working in Washington DC in a government agency I was attacked in the elevator by an Assistant Secretary as we were leaving at the end of the day. I kicked him in the crotch and fled when the doors opened. The guard in the parking lot would not do anything because of this person's status. The next morning instead of reporting to my (his) office I went to personnel to file a complaint (sexual harassment) and was told that I had to get in line behind over 2 dozen other women who had filed complaints against this man.Because he was a "schedule C" he was home free! He was a friend of the Secretary's and my actions caused me to be moved into a dead-end job. So I left the Government. This was also around the time of the Anita Hill issue with Chief Justice Clarance Thomas. The mid-1980's.It would not have done any good to go to the press. DC is a different animal.
We've come a long way baby.
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