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

Florida nurses rallied at their state capitol this week to call for minimum staffing ratios and whistleblower protection. The Miami Herald was there to report on the rally. The nurses cite research showing that improving nurse-to-patient ratios saves lives and costs less than alternative safety procedures that would cost more. The bill would also provide employee protection for nurses who refuse unsafe assignments or file complaints against the hospital or clinic. These protections would drastically improve their right of free speech within the workplace. The march was sponsored by the National Nurses Organizing Committee which is organizing nurses in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Intern Quinn McCall contributed to this blog entry.

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A child welfare employee has won a million dollar jury verdict in Palm Beach County, Florida, according to the Miami Herald.  Gerolyn Shapiro says that she was fired because her testimony pointed to the negligence of another county employee.  Shapiro had worked for the county's Department of Children and Families for ten years.  She testified that the negligence resulted in the deaths of two children and the severe brain injury of a third child.

Notably, Shapiro's testimony occurred years before her 2006 discharge.  The jury was apparently unmoved by how the county managers allowed Shapiro to continue working for years after the testimony at issue, and was still able to connect the dots to find that the manager's anger over the testimony was still the cause of the discharge. This case well explains why whistleblowers everywhere need to have access to juries to have confidence that the legal system will protect them.

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