OSHA’s whistleblower statutes protect employees from retaliation. It is against the law for an employer to retaliate against a worker for reporting an injury, raising safety concerns, or engaging in other activities protected by the law. Since passage of the OSH Act in 1970, Congress has expanded OSHA’s whistleblower authority to protect workers from retaliation under twenty-two different statutes. Complaints must be reported to OSHA within set timeframes following the retaliatory action, as prescribed by each law. This 4-hour course will define what the Whistleblower program is and it will discuss the laws/statutes, worker protections and penalties afforded by each statute. Additionally, the course will explain how complaints can be filed and how they are investigated, and the time frames for filing a complaint in accordance with the various statutes. Finally, we will discuss jurisdictional issues as compared with the State of California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE) and we will provide examples of recent cases.
