Just a question about focus on whistleblowers

[preventivePhD]

In recent years, all of the focus in media and on forums I've visited has been on government whistleblowers. I rarely, hear anything about private sector whistleblowers where the numbers are much larger (e.g., instead of 36 you have 1000s) and its my impression the private sector whistleblowers generally speaking are treated just as severely if not more. Why the solo focus on government whistleblowers?

[Vox Moi]

1. Most private sector whistleblowers are employees-at-will ...

... and so the 'protected activity' (whistleblowing) laws are trumped by the great bargain we made with Corporations. Thanks to 'employee-at-will' policies, government has little jurisdiction over corporations when it comes to individual employees.
Corporations can fire employees-at-will for 'any reason or no reason at all'. A whistleblower gets fired immediately and any action by the plaintiff must be pressed in civil court at the whistleblower's expense. The issue at hand is not the whistleblower's original complaint, but rather 'unlawful termnination' and the burden of proof is on the whistleblower. If there is not an immediate, provable threat to human health or safety the whistleblower has little chance of success in a complicated and hostile legal battle. It is also unlikely that the whistleblower will find additional support from government prosecutors until after he has won a case of illegal termination.

[preventivePhD]

2. There are plenty of whistleblower laws for private sector employees and until today

when Obama signed a stronger government employee bill, whistleblower laws were stronger for private sector employees.

The idea that corporations can fire at will is simply something that corporations say but there are numerous private sector whistleblower for every state in addition to numerous Federal laws. Notable Federal law examples include the Recovery Act law, Sarbanes-Oxley & False Claims Act. State laws are reviewed on a number of websites you can just google them. Most have there own State False Claims Act anti-retaliation provisions. All of this trumps the at will provisions as do gender & race discrimination laws.

[antigop19667]

5. +1. Good post man

well stated

[laserhaas]

3. As a whistleblower who was also an Officer of the Court. They seek to ignore private

whistleblowers - just for that very reason.

There are so many more.

and YES

We all get treated badly (ostracized out of our profession etc)

[preventivePhD]

4. Why I never had much respect for those who just complain about government whistleblowers

Glenn Greenwald and others who argue they support whistleblowers are IMO blowing something else, probably an anti-government agenda as they never mention the larger corporate problem.