According to Annette Greene and Jean Latting Kantambu writing in Social Work, the federal Whistleblower Protection Act makes it illegal for an employer to fire, threaten, or treat an employee differently because he or she reported an alleged violation of a law. Employees may report risks to someone's health or safety, refuse to perform a task that will endanger the individual's life or another's life, report incidents of fraud, mislabeling, misrepresentation, or any other unlawful activity to the appropriate authorities and remain protected by this federal law.
Greene and Kantambu explain that this law protects employees involved in reporting or testifying about unlawful activities. However, the law provides protection only if the employee has reported the activity to a government or law enforcement agency. In addition, an employee may be protected under other laws, such as state laws, and laws that make it unlawful for a company to fire an employee for complaining of sexual harassment or discrimination (Greene, Kantambu, 219).
Whistle blowing is controversial and is not without risk to the whistleblower. Employees owe a duty of loyalty to their employer, but whistle blowing can be justified in situations in which an employer is involved in activities that are illegal or unethical. While it is true that employees have a duty to their employer to safeguard confidential information, whistle blowing often requires those involved to reveal confidential information to law enforcement or a government or regulatory agency. Thus, whistle blowing can be thought of performing a higher duty. The activity, which may seem disloyal to some people, can be justified because society benefits from the action taken by the whistle blower.
The advantage of whistle blowing is that problems are corrected more quickly. One disadvantage of whistle blowing is that the whistle blower is often placed under significant scrutiny and pre
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