In the recent past, there have been several employees who have brought to light corrupt and unethical business practices on the part of their employer. Whistleblowers are known as internal and external individuals who disclose their firms’ illegal behavior. When faced with such an accusation, some companies have tried retaliating against the informer (Beatty 743). As a result of these cases, there are numerous laws that exist that protect employees from retaliation. Within this paper, the most significant whistleblowing protection statutes and acts will be discussed, as well as, important cases, and the ethics behind whistleblowing. Generally, the types of workplace retaliation that are enforced to protect against the treatment of whistleblowers …show more content…
v. United States Ex Rel. Escobar controversial case, respondents alleged that Universal Health had defrauded the Medicaid program, violating the False Claims Act (See 31 U.S.C. §3729 et seq.). United Health did this after requesting a reimbursement claim for services provided (Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States Ex Rel. Escobar, 2016). They claimed that they provided specific services by a particular types of professionals, but they failed to disclose violations of regulations pertaining to the qualifications and licenses of staff members (Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States Ex Rel. Escobar, 2016). Respondents filed a Qui Tam suit, after a teenage beneficiary at a Massachusetts’ Medicaid program had died from a seizure (Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States Ex Rel. Escobar, 2016). The young girl had been diagnosed, by an unlicensed staff member, with bipolar disorder thus triggering her death by the adverse effects from the medicine she was prescribed. The respondents wanted Universal Health liable under the Implied False Certification Theory of Liability (Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States Ex Rel. Escobar, 2016). This IFC theory is a legal doctrine, that treats payment requests as an implied certification that the claimant was within compliance of regulations, material contract conditions, and relevant statutes. The doctrine ultimately treats failure to disclose a violation as …show more content…
City of New York, Harman spoke out on national television "the workers who are considered the best workers are the ones who seem to be able to move cases out quickly"; and (2) "there are lots of fatalities the press doesn't know anything about."(Harman v. City of New York, 1996). These statements were in regards to the city’s welfare agency not adequately protecting children from egregious abuse. The city suspended her without pay for thirty days so she sued. The court ultimately ruled that the government holds the right to prohibit some employee speech unless it is a matter of public concern (Beatty
Which allows employees that have observed any illegal acts or acts that raise concern to be able to report to a company hotline that allows that individual to report with the secrecy of the act without fear of retaliation from the company. Generally, whistleblowers are employees that are dedicated to the company and is a model employee. They do not have any intentions of hurting the company, but rather to improve the company. By having an anonymous reporting method of any situations allows employees to feel that the company values their opinions and actually care what is happening within the company. Another reason that this is a plus is because this keeps everybody honest, since there is an open door policy of reporting any illegal acts. The best way to implement this protocol is to educate employees on what the purpose of the program is. Then train the employees on the simple reporting procedures and certify that everything is clearly written and efficiently understood. When the complaint has reported an Ombudsperson or manager will report the matter to upper management to conduct an internal investigation. When all is done and the complaint is true, then actions will be done to correct the problems. In this case of the secretary being fired for refusal to prepare false expense reports for her boss, there is no need for her to be terminated instead this allows the creation of the whistle-blowing hotline for the company to investigate any illegal acts within the
One of the biggest contributors to health care costs that I have seen during my time in the healthcare industry is insurance fraud. One example of such fraud came about two months ago. I was taking a phone call from a provider that was upset that one of their claims had denied even though all of their previous claims had been paid. In researching with a partner plan it was determined that the claim denied because this medical provid...
Instead of offering amnesty to whistleblowers for a limited time, we must implement this rule on a permanent basis, and let it be known that it is necessary to report suspicious behavior if noticed without any consequence. The permanent implementation will keep all the employees honest with each other and the company thus minimizing the chance of corruption.
Although Hollate introduced a compliance program and code of conduct when it went public, the programs were put on “the back burner”. This outcome is not surprised for that the company does not pay attention to the programs. It is, therefore, important to “reinforce the values” and “employee a boundary system when actions are inconsistent with the code of conduct” for the purpose of early detection. Tyco provides a good example after its scandal, by initiating “mandatory annual compliance training for all its employees worldwide” and creating the Tyco Guide to Ethical Conduct to familiarize employees with company expectations and help them make ethical decisions. As tips is the most useful method for internal and external sources to detect frauds, the whistleblower hotline should be well communicated with encouragement on reporting any suspicious activity. In addition, to improve the effectiveness of the compliance program and code of conducts, Hollate should implement management monitoring and evaluation on a regular
On November 29th, Mary Inman gave us a talk on the topic whistleblowing, which let me know more about the whistleblower activities and the whistleblower protection. According to the definition given by the website whistleblowers international, whistleblowing is someone who reveal the unethical or illegal activities within the company. The person can be current or past employee, or an outside individual who is familiar with the unethical activity. This whistleblower does not need to be U.S. citizen.
Whistleblowing is extremely risky business, not just within the United Nations but in any place where governments and corporations have something to hide. It can also cause deep anguish to the whistleblower. In his book called Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power, C. Fred Alford, a Professor of Government at the University of Maryland, College Park, provides a chilling and deeply pessimistic account of whistleblowers who have exposed corruption in high places.
Whistleblowing is the term applied to the reporting by employees of illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers to parties who can take corrective action (Elliston 1985). All directors, officials and employees have the responsibility to notify any
Whistleblowing is the deed, usually done by an employee of a company, of drawing concern or creating awareness of unethical or illegal behaviour within the corporation to a higher authority or to the public. Whistleblowing can take place internally or externally. Internal whistleblowing is when an employee bypasses an immediate supervisor and reports the issue to a superior level of administration. This type of whistleblowing is kept within the firm whereas external whistleblowing occurs when an employee exposes the wrongdoings of a company to external sources such as the press or law enforcements. There is also a distinction between acknowledged and anonymous whistleblowing. Anonymous whistle-blowing occurs when the whistleblower keeps their identity concealed to protect themselves and their relatives from the consequences put on by the company while acknowledged whistleblowers are willing to withstand the accusations of disloyalty along with the consequences brought on by the company by putting their name behind their deed of whistleblowing.
Sadly my organizations overlook efforts by whistleblowers to put attention about misconduct occurring inside the organization. The system needs more whistleblowers because those in positions of power are usually skillful at hiding corruption from the public. People with honesty and a desire for truth and justice are our biggest hope for bringing information to this
“Whistle blowing is a disclosure by an employee or professional of confidential information which relates to some danger, fraud or other illegal or unethical conduct connected with the work place, be it of the employer or his fellow employees.” Based on the facts read, Delectables Corp. is participating in serious unethical behavior that in the long term can hurt both the company and its customers. Before deciding how best to proceed questions such as these come to mind: “Am I blowing the whistle for the right reasons? Am I ready to be known as a whistleblower? Am I prepared to live with the consequences?” I would think through my decision by weighing the pros and cons of whistle blowing. There are numerous risks associated with this decision.
The answer is quite complex, because some would argue that it is a lengthy process just to get to the bottom of these allegations since both parties could and would probably sue each other, it’s expensive as well. As mentioned above, the whistleblower in question can have his reputation ruined if these allegations turned out to be false or even worse he may cause publicity and this can result in the layoff of workers in the company as well as him not having a job in the future so at the end, it will all be a mess with both sides losing. This may sound like an argument that is deemed intimating but people are still willing to try and success into making a better environment for future employees and even with laws and procedures in place, whistleblowers, especially in the US are being treated poorly because who would want to be “disloyal” and “irresponsible” at a company especially multinational ones and this causes a confusion for upcoming whistleblowers to decide whether it’s worth it or not. (Ettorre) In terms of Kantian theorists, they suggest that people would act in harmony with all the universally accepted rules such as telling the truth which is
Whistleblowing is one of the most delicate constructs of our society, contradicting in ardor and antipathy. Though it has no clear definition regarding morality, it is most basically defined as a person who provides information on an illegal, immoral, or harmful activity being performed by an organization or government. Whistleblowing can fall anywhere from heroic to the highest federal crime in America. Though many laws, dating back to 1777, have been put in place to protect whistleblowers, many have their jobs taken away, personal lives destroyed, and have even gone to prison. The cause of such hypocrisy could be the highly subjective nature of the deed. Whistleblowing is an action that is hard to delineate as crime or benevolence due to
Whistleblowers are often viewed as heroes of the business world, due to the exposure to the public of unethical practices within companies. While whistleblowing has a bad reputation, it is often encouraged in the work place, due to its benefits. These benefits include, fraud detection, workplace safety, and protecting the workforce as a whole. Along with that, whistleblowing stands as early detections of fraud, or misconduct, within a company, therefor causing an early investigation before these unethical practices spread.
public servants. For some, this action is perceived positively because it promotes the public good
Whistle blowing is an attempt of an employee or former employee of a company to reveal what he or she believes to be a wrongdoing in or by a company or organization. Whistle blowing tries to make others aware of practices that are considered illegal or immoral. If the wrongdoing is reported to someone in the company it is said to be internal. Internal whistle blowing tends to do less damage to the company. There is also external whistle blowing. This is where the wrongdoing is reported to the media and brought to the attention of the public. This type of whistle blowing tends to affect the company in a negative way because of bad publicity. It is said that whistle blowing is personal if the wrongdoing affects the whistle blower alone (like sexual harassment), and said to be impersonal if the wrongdoing affects other people. Many people whistle blow for two main reasons: morality and revenge.