Whistleblower protections that apply to public and private employers.
The increasing number of state whistleblower protection laws. In the meantime, states are moving quickly to fill the void left by the lack of comprehensive federal legislation. Michigan passed the first Whistleblower's Protection Law in 1981, and the majority of states now have such statutes. Employees may risk retaliation from their employers for making such reports, giving rise to state and federal protections for whistleblowers. In addition to the state laws listed below, there are numerous federal laws with whistleblower protections that apply to public and private employers. An overview of federal provisions can be found on the U.S. Dept. of Labor website. State whistleblower laws are constantly changing -- contact a Washington whistleblower attorney or conduct your own legal research to verify the state law(s) you are researching. Research the Law. 1  Washington Law. 2  Official State Codes-Links to the official online statutes (laws) in all 50 states and DC. The first is that with only a couple exceptions, state whistleblower statutes do not follow the compensation model of the federal False Claims Act. Those exceptions are Illinois, Florida, Oregon, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. States also began to pass their own versions of whistleblower laws. By the 1980s, such legislation had become common at the state and federal level, and in 1986 the federal False Claims Act was strengthened to give whistleblowers more rights. States with general whistleblower statues that protect both private and public employees include: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. In the 1980s, for example, 15 states passed general whistleblower statutes, and many state courts further developed a public policy exception to the at-will employment doctrine for whistleblowers. The result is that state courts have become a major arena for whistleblower cases. A “whistleblower” is someone, usually an employee, who reports an employer who has broken the law to an outside agency. Whistleblowers are protected by federal and state laws.
http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/old/12_00/basics/whistle/rst/wstlblo_policy.html http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-whistleblower-laws.aspx http://statelaws.findlaw.com/washington-law/washington-whistleblower-laws.html http://lawdigest.uslegal.com/labor-law/whistleblowers/7289/ http://lawdigest.uslegal.com/labor-law/whistleblowers/7289/ http://lawdigest.uslegal.com/labor-law/whistleblowers/7289/ http://lawdigest.uslegal.com/labor-law/whistleblowers/7289/ http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/corporate-whistleblower-protection-and-the-sarbanes-oxley-act.html
what do states have regarding whistleblower