Public health researcher Celeste Montorton (of George Washington University’s School of Public Health) has posted an extensive commentary on the whistleblower issues raised during last week’s OSHA Listens public hearing. Through her The Pump Handle blog, she appreciates the criticism of OSHA’s whistleblower program. She quotes from Jason Zuckerman’s comment about how OSHA regional directors too often rubber stamp whatever the employer says. She quotes from my remarks about how OSHA has failed to address the management and oversight concerns raised in a report by the General Accounting Office. She concludes, "Defending [whistleblowers] is OSHA’s core mission. There’s no reason this program this program should be treated like an orphan; it should be OSHA’s jewel—a treasured program at the heart of an effective worker health and safety protection system." Jason and I had some concrete suggestions for improving OSHA’s whistleblower program, and Celeste offers some of her own. The floor is wide open now for policy makers at the Department of Labor to make some bold improvements in the whistleblower program.
