Whistle blowers are persons (mostly employees) that reports to government agencies or internal bodies, the illegal and unethical of their bosses, employers, or authorities of their workplace or organization. There are series of violations of the laws and other legal procedures that are being done by employers that without an information or insight by an “insider”, it would be very difficult for government agencies to discover these violations. The act of whistle blowing becomes very important to government agencies to bringing these violations to light and necessary actions are taken.
Be Careful of Employer Retaliation
In view of the sensitivity of whistle blowing, it is very important that whistle blower know how to report the illegal or immoral act because there are tendencies that the employer, boss or organization will retaliate against the whistle blower. In most cases, whistle blower retaliation takes many forms; often firing the whistle blower.
How to Blow the Whistle
On how to blow the whistle, it is pertinent for the whistle blower to know that blowing the whistle is more than reporting the illegal or unethical act of the person/organization involved. To blow the whistle, the whistle blower simply communicates the illegal and unethical actions of the person or organization to the relevant government agency or agencies either by writing or otherwise. Where it is an internal whistle blowing, the act is communicated to the relevant authorities in accordance with organization’s whistle blowing policy. However, there are modern ways of whistle blowing used to ensure the protection of the whistle blower. This is by the use of sophisticated software to protect the identity of the whistle blower. For example, Tor is an anonymity network that is used all over the world to grant anonymity status to whistle blowers who desire to engage in whistle blowing. SecureDrop and GlobaLeaks were recently built as an advanced technology on Tor for the purpose of simplifying whistleblowing. SecureDrop guarantees a secure communication between journalist and the whistle blower. Apart from secure communication, GlobaLeak is designed in such a way that someone who is not technically endowed can set it up and make use of the platform easily. SecureDrop and GlobaLeaks can be accessed at www.securedrop.org and www.globaleaks.org respectively. Also used by companies to offer anonymity of whistle blowing is OpenBoard which can be accessed at www.openboard.com.
What Laws & Organizations Protect Whistleblowers?
Irrespective of the mode adopted by a whistle blower, where there is retaliation moves against him or her, there are laws that protect the interest of the Whistle blower. For example, the Whistle blower Protection Act of 1989 is a U.S. federal law that protects federal government agencies whistle blowers who work and report government agent misconduct. Where there is retaliation, the whistle blower can file a complaint with reasonable evidence to establish his complaint. Some authorized federal agencies that receive such complaints are the Office of Special Counsel, Merit System Protection Board, and Court of Appeal of the Federal Circuit.
It is important, as a whistle blower, to know the relevant rights and protections for effective whistle blowing.
Minneapolis adventures 