Whistleblower Attorney Interviewed by National Law Journal About Labor Secretary Nominee

A National Law Journal article titled What Should the Senate #AskPuzder? Labor Lawyers Have Questions summarizes interviews with employment lawyers across the country about what senators should ask Labor Secretary nominee Puzder at his confirmation hearing. The NLJ interviewed whistleblower lawyer Jason Zuckerman, Principal of Washington DC whistleblower law firm Zuckerman Law, and he proposed asking the following question at the confirmation hearing:

Jason Zuckerman, Zuckerman Law, Washington, D.C.:

The recent congressional hearings about fraudulent sales practices at Wells Fargo revealed that several whistleblowers at Wells Fargo suffered retaliation when they refused to open unauthorized accounts. What will you do strengthen OSHA’s whistleblower protection program, which lacks adequate resources to enforce whistleblower protection laws? Do you agree that strong whistleblower protection is essential to avoid the next financial crisis?

Under the leadership of former DOL Assistant Secretary, OSHA made a lot of progress in strengthening OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program. But the program is vastly underfunded and therefore unable to effectively enforce corporate whistleblower protection laws. See, for example, the following post about a recent OIG report evaluating OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program: OIG Report Recommends Improvements to OSHA Whistleblower Program.

The recent Congressional hearing about illegal sales practices at Wells Fargo is a salient example of why it is so critical to provide robust protection to whistleblowers. Whistleblowers at Wells Fargo who opposed or refused to engage in unlawful sales practices suffered retaliation, including termination of employment and blacklisting.

Some of those whistleblowers brought Sarbanes-Oxley retaliation complaints at OSHA and the complaints languished for years due to OSHA’s crushing caseload. Mr. Puzder’s disdain for worker protection laws is an ominous sign of what he would do to OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program. This Administration should appoint a Labor Secretary who will strengthen, not weaken, OSHA’s enforcement of whistleblower protection laws.

According to Better Markets, a watchdog for financial reform, the real cost of the 2008 financial crisis was approximately $20 trillion. Congress enacted the whistleblower protection provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to combat a “corporate code of silence,” a code that “discourage[d] employees from reporting fraudulent behavior not only to the proper authorities, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the SEC, but even internally.” S. Rep. No. 107-146, at 4–5 (2002). Responding to the Enron scandal, Congress sought to ensure that whistleblowers could serve as an effective early warning system for companies and help prevent future scandals. To prevent another Enron and another financial crisis, the next Secretary of Labor should provide OSHA the resources necessary to enforce SOX and other whistleblower protection laws.