Whistleblower Protection Blog : Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

With the popular revolutions of Tunis and Egypt sparking interest in the power of peaceful protest, the world is on watch for the next hot spot. Yemen, Iran or Bahrain? How about Wisconsin? Yesterday hundreds of public employees and their supporters held a "citizens filibuster" in the state capitol to protest a proposal to abolish collective bargaining rights. The protesters overflowed a committee hearing room and camped out overnight. The Associated Press is reporting that the new administration in Wisconsin is proposing the elimination of collective bargaining for all state and local employees in the state, except for law enforcement and firefighters. Proponents claim that collective bargaining agreements make it harder for the state to make cuts in spending.

Unions also add a layer of protection for whistleblowers. Those public employees who have information about suspicious activities can feel more secure about disclosing that information when they know that a union grievance or arbitration process stands between management and their discharge. Civil service hearings depend on appointees of the administration and are much weaker as a protection for whistleblowers. Any government has greater integrity when it protects free speech and due process. Doing away with collective bargaining rights will be a victory for those public officials who want to abuse their power and keep the employees too afraid to speak up.

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Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a member of the National Whistleblowers Center’s Board of Directors and founder and leader of the No FEAR Coalition, will be appearing before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) tomorrow, February 9, 2011, objecting to her removal from the Environmental Protection Agency in January of 2009.

This is another case against the agency by Dr. Coleman-Adebayo, who is now defending herself from retaliation and the failure of the agency to provide her with reasonable accommodation as a disabled person.  Dr. Coleman-Adebayo alleges that the continuous harassment and discriminatory management culture inside the EPA that has continued unabated against her since she first won a court victory in 2000 for retaliation based on race, sex, and color discrimination.

Dr. Coleman-Adebayo stated in her press release issued today, February 8, 2011,

"What's the difference between threatening phone calls, threats of rape, name calling, being assigned responsibilities outside one's expertise, being denied requests for reasonable accommodation, and being fired for reasons of disability? They're all from different chapters of a playbook that will stop at nothing to punish, shun, impugn and marginalize whistleblowers."

The press release is available below:

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Today, Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia postponed Scott Bloch’s sentencing once again until Thursday, March 10, 2011. Prosecutors urged the judge to reconsider her ruling last week that the charge of lying to Congress carries a one-month minimum jail sentence.

Scott Bloch was the former head of the Office of Special Counsel. He pled guilty in April to contempt of Congress for lying about his effort to erase files from government computers. Bloch withheld information from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during the Bush administration. Federal investigators charged him, the nation’s former top protector of whistleblowers, with criminal contempt of Congress.  

His sentencing has been continuously postponed because his charge is rare and a verdict has been difficult to determine. Last week, in her 13-page ruling Judge Robinson declared that the dispute was a novel one with no published opinion on what the sentencing for contempt of Congress is.

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