As businesses gear up for the new year, extra care should be taken to operate within the increasingly complex network of laws protecting the employee. According to one law firm, 2012 might be the Year of the Whistleblower. This week’s Feature from CCH examines the top five predictions for whistleblower programs in 2012 from Phillips & Cohen LLP, a law firm that has specialized in representing whistleblowers for nearly 25 years.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted final rules creating a whistleblower program which rewards individuals who provide “high-quality” tips to the agency that lead to successful enforcement actions; the rules do not require employees to report suspected securities violations to their employer first. Read more

Promising to improve the performance of its Office of Whistleblower Protection Program, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announces major restructuring and complaint processing as a result of its internal “Top to Bottom” review of the program. Read more

OSHA has published interim final rules revising the regulations governing whistleblower complaints filed under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. SOX protects employees of publicly traded companies and their subsidiaries, and of certain other employers, from retaliation for reporting mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, securities fraud, violations of Securities and Exchange Commission rules or regulations, or violations of any provision of federal law relating to fraud against shareholders. Read more

Halliburton's breach of a whistleblower’s confidentiality with regard to his complaint may have constituted an adverse action, the U.S. Dept. of Labor Administrative Review Board rules. Read more

A FedEx courier was engaged in whistleblower activities protected by the Sarbanes Oxley Act when she alerted dispatchers, customer service representatives, her manager, and, finally, local law enforcement that a third party was using FedEx as a conduit for suspected mail fraud, a Dept. of Labor Administrative Review Board holds. Read more

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Whistleblower Protection Program, which administers 21 federal whistleblower laws, would have to add staff and increased funding to address the previously reported “excessive caseload imposed on OSHA whistleblower investigators due to understaffing," according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Office of Inspector General. Read more

An employee who reported corporate credit card misuse and abuse first internally, then as a participant in the Internal Revenue Service “Whistleblower Rewards Program” where he disclosed a number of proprietary or confidential company documents, may be protected against retaliation by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dept. of Labor Administrative Review Board rules, reversing an administrative law judge decision in favor of the company. Read more

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has released a new edition of its Whistleblower Investigations Manual, one of a series of measures to improve OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program, according to the agency. Read more