Whistle While You Work

by: Bill Orr

Sun Dec 05, 2010 at 11:00:22 AM EST

Just whistle while you work
And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place.
Disney: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

WikiLeaks, today's ultimate whistleblower, has just provided us with some 250,000 documents about our State Department's deeds and misdeeds. WikiLeaks plays such a critical role because the statute for federal employee whistleblowers is weak and the special court which hears these cases has provided redress in only three of over 300 cases. (The Supreme Court ruled that government employees do not have protection from retaliation if the alleged speech was produced as part of their duties.) We should now take another look at our own NJ law.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has described the state's Conscientious Employee Protection Act (CEPA) as "the most far reaching 'whistle-blower statute' in the nation." Since 1986 CEPA had made it illegal "for New Jersey employers to retaliate against any employee who discloses the employer's illegal conduct, provides evidence about such conduct, or simply objects to conduct that the employee reasonably believes is illegal." In April this year a New Jersey Transit employee received a record $569,587 award after a federal investigation found that NJ Transit illegally retaliated against him. In October a NJ State Trooper won a $240,000 verdict for his whistleblower lawsuit.

Public Employees for Environmental Protection (PEER) holds a less sanguine view of CEPA. In its Accountability Report Card Summary 2009 for New Jersey, it determines:

NJ has an uneven state whisleblower law: scoring only 58 out of a possible 100 points and Ranking 12th out of 51. NJ has a very narrow statute (9 out of 33 possible points), with moderate usability (21 out of 33), and strong remedies (27 out of 33) plus one bonus point awarded foe employee notification rights.

We lose points because the statute does not cover such categories as gross mismanagement, abuse of authority, waste of public funds, alteration of technical findings, and breaches of professional ethics canons.

Our governor says he supports transparency but he also uses bullying, fear, and overblown rhetoric which stifle whistle-blowing. In a federal setting WikiLeaks is like a loose cannon - of great utility but also providing collateral damage. It is much better to have good laws than to rely on loose cannons. It is time for the NJ legislature to review our own law.

Bill Orr :: Whistle While You Work

Tags: NJ Supreme Court, CEPA, Wikileaks, transparency, featured, whistleblower, (All Tags)

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Whistle While You Work | 2 comments

Bergen Regional Med. Center cited (0.00 / 0)

for deficiencies at its facility in a whistleblower lawsuit had its attempt to seek dismissal of the case rejected by a judge. The Record reports, Mary Louise Doyle of Old Tappan, a registered nurse who worked at the hospital for nearly 20 years, says she was threatened, harassed and finally terminated after her complaints.

The Medical Center disputed her allegations last week. Investigation of the incidences had been spurred on in April 2008 when Sen. "Weinberg, D-Teaneck, wrote the state health commissioner about Doyle's claims, urging the department to contact the nurse and investigate the hospital."

All too frequently whistleblowers are terminated and need the assistance of lawyers and legislators to receive redress.

"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." - Sen. Ted Kennedy

by: Bill Orr @ Mon Dec 06, 2010 at 15:25:24 PM UTC

Democratizing Leaking (0.00 / 0)

On the larger questions of the lessons of WikiLeaks and how the internet democratizes leaking and WikiLeaks itself wounds secrecy, this by CUNY journalism professor Jeff Jarvis is fascinating: 'Wikileaks: Power shifts from secrecy to transparency'. It's at his blog BuzzMachine and reposted at Huffington Post and here in German.

Professor Jarvis was also keynote speaker in a Citizens Campaign meeting on hyperlocal news Deciminyan & I attended last week. A real live wire.

It's not a particularly snappy signature, but here's what I think we need in the next NJ Democratic State Chair.

by: Rosi Efthim @ Mon Dec 06, 2010 at 23:41:17 PM UTC