Whistleblowers: On August 1, 2008, Congress sent President Bush a Consumer Product Safety bill with new whistleblower protections

I will write more about this bill later, H.R. 4040 (passed by both the House and Senate).

The law works kind of similar to the EEOC laws (discrimination laws), but the right to sue is not automatically granted.

The Bill provides an explicit right to file a whistleblower complaint with the US Department of Labor within 180 days of suffering retaliation for properly reporting (as specified in the law) a consumer product safety violation.

If the Department of Labor does not finish its processing within 210 days, then you can file a lawsuit.

Damages are — reinstatement, backpay, compensatory damages, attorney fees, but not punitive damages.

AND a little trap: The law permits the Department of Labor to award $1,000 in attorney fees to the Employer, if the Department finds that the complaint was frivolous.

Here’s the Thomas page for the Bill, H.R. 4040. If the link breaks, go to “thomas.loc.gov” and do a search for H.R. 4040. And, You can also go to Govtrack for H.R. 4040 information.

Here’s a news story: reports say Bush plans to sign the bill into law.