How Does a Office of Special Counsel do something in a whistle blower issue?

| Saturday, January 21, 2012
By Lalliane Spencer


How Does The OSC do something in a whisteblower case?

The OSC is under obligation to treat every whistleblower's complaint gravely and as a result will instigate a full inquiry. If the OSC find that there's sufficient proof to show that the whistleblower has indeed been victimized in some way, then the governing body can seek to initiate correcting steps, disciplinary action, or in a few cases, both. If the most effective way forward is curative action, then the Office of Special Counsel can act as a negotiator like whistleblower attorney between both the whistleblower and the employer to try and resolve matters. If as an example the whistleblower has been suspended then the OSC will attempt to reinstate the employee as the employer has violated whistleblower policy.

If the OSC fail in their bid to fix a situation then the very next step is to take disciplinary action. To do this they would need to lodge a claim for legal action before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). For the litigation to go ahead the Office of Special Counsel needs to demonstrate that there are reasonable grounds that a violation of the whistleblower act has happened, is occurring, or is preparing to occur.

When a case gets into the hands of the Merit Systems Protection Board then they will look to take remedial action like restoring a person's job, reversing suspensions and any other harmful actions. In addition to this they'll look to claim compensation for their customer (the whistleblower) for any back pay that has been lost when they were postponed or cancelled, any private damages for any trauma and stress due to being cancelled, postponed or demoted, and repayment of court and attorney's fees.

Obviously there is a chain of command the whistle blower has to go thru to get their claim heard and the first port of landing is the OSC. If they fail to act upon the allegations of the whistleblower, then the employee can go over the heads of the OSC and lodge a claim at once with the Merit Systems Protection Board.

However this is only possible in the event that they have been terminated from their employment. If this is the case, then a hearing officer will be allotted to take on the claim.If as a whistleblower you're still not pleased with the way that you have been treated and the MSPB have acted in favour of the employer, then you can take the case to the Court of Appeals for the Fed Circuit.




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