Research On Whistleblower Protection Under Employment Law In The United States

Employees blow the whistle to the accepting person or agency in order to safeguard the public interest,which is known as employees' whistleblowing.The trait of employees' whistleblowing is that employees have the advantage of access to organizational information,employees have restrictions on duty of loyalty and whistleblowing employees have the potential risk of retaliation from employers,which is different from other citizens' whistleblowing.So employees' whistleblowing protection deserves to study.Employees' whistleblowing is beneficial not only to the overall interests of the employer,but also to maintain the public interest,to promote public security,to protect the rights and interests of consumers and so on,which can be regarded as a higher level of loyalty.Employees' whistleblowing may damage the interests of the managers and is liable to suffer retaliation.Especially employers can use punishment power given by law such as pay cut,job relocation,demotion,dismissal and so on to revenge whistleblowing employees.The greater risk a whistleblowing employee faces,the less likely it is to encourage potential whistleblowers to expose wrongdoing.Therefore,the whistleblowing behavior of employees needs to be recognized and defined in the legislation,and the relief procedures and protection measures against retaliation by the whistleblowing employees need to be provided with clear laws.Among all the countries in the world,the United States is one of the earliest countries that established the whistleblower protection under employment law,which not only affects the enactment of relevant laws in Japan,but also has a considerable impact on the legislation of similar laws in the UK.Although the United States is a case law country,but in the field of protecting the whistleblowers,it has enacted severalwritten laws,which is sufficient to demonstrate its emphasis on those whistleblowers whose courage,perseverance,and suffering have contributed to the common good.The whistleblower clause in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 was recognized by scholars as a turning point in the whistleblowing legislation.This is a federal statute that protects the public sector's whistleblowers,which has not only affected the protection legislation of the late public sector whistleblowers,but also provided a model for private sector whistleblowers protection legislation.In the 21 st century,private whistleblowers protection laws are far more numerous than ever before,providing protection for tens of millions of private sectors' whistleblowing employees.The boundaries between the public and private sectors are more pronounced in the United States than in many other countries.The United States would prefer to protect the personal decisions of the private sector from government intervention,which is the reason that most private sectors' whistleblowers protection legislation is later than public sectors.There is no special whistleblower protection law in the field of employment law in our country,and the relevant legislative provisions are more general and non-operable.In the face of the most severe retaliation,the existing fire protection system can't solve the problem of mixed motivation of employees who blow the whistle,let alone other covered with legitimate recessive retaliation.In view of the existing situation and drawing on the experience of the United States,our country should first encourage and affirm the whistleblowing behavior of employees in legislation.It is also necessary to define the whistleblowing behavior of employees,to establish the constitution requirement for the employee's whistleblowing behavior,to establish a protection and relief procedure which can protect whistleblowing employees against retaliation from the employers.