OSHA´s Whistleblower Protection Program Essay examples

The Supreme Court was requested to rule on the cotton dust standard using the OSHA’s mandate under section 3(8) whose objective was to protect workers from the exposure of hazardous materials. In the Department of Industrial Union, the Benzene decision decided by a divided court invalidated the OSHA 's benzene standard. According to the judges, OSHA had to base its findings on substantial evidence rather than mere assumptions. These records should show that occupational exposure to the regulated substance presents significant health risk (Schulte, et al., 2014).

Mr. Ingle and Mr. Hunter claimed the Board of Dir’s decided not to end completely the Claimant’s employment and allowed her to work as an “at will employee.” Mr. Ingle explained that the Claimant’s employment was “not guaranteed.”

In 2008, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. have failed to ensure a sustainable safety environment, put in place a health program, and maintain adequate record keeping on work-related injury and illnesses claims for certain locations in the state of Ohio. This employer has been made aware of OSHA requirements for its industry and has been cited many times for similar infractions. OSHA regulators have imposed stiff penalty fines that have cost Lowe’s Companies Inc. thousands of dollars. The record-keeping violations at the

He transferred funds from WHA to his personal bank account and other accounts he had access and control too. Richard understated the amount of unpaid payroll taxes of WHA and its subsidiaries and by overstating the amount of loans made by him to WHA. As a result the financial statements and records were manipulated. He also directed purchasers of new issued shares to transfer the funds of the shares to accounts under his control. Around $6 million was taken and spent. The market value of WHA and the earnings per share were also inflated and overstated as well. This happened because of Richard falsely giving records to the SEC, WHA shareholders, and perspective new purchasers of stock by understating the real number of outstanding shares in the company’s financial statements. World Health Alternatives lost $41 million in total from all of the fraudulent activity.

Between the years 2000 and 2002 there were over a dozen corporate scandals involving unethical corporate governance practices. The allegations ranged from faulty revenue reporting and falsifying financial records, to the shredding and destruction of financial documents (Patsuris, 2002). Most notably, are the cases involving Enron and Arthur Andersen. The allegations of the Enron scandal went public in October 2001. They included, hiding debt and boosting profits to the tune of more than one billion dollars. They were also accused of bribing foreign governments to win contacts and manipulating both the California and Texas power markets (Patsuris, 2002). Following these allegations, Arthur Andersen was investigated for, allegedly,

i) Whistleblower Protection: SOX prohibits non-profit organizations (as well as profit-organization) from retaliating against the whistleblowers. In other words, no entity cannot harass, fire, demote or assault any employee who reports of improper functioning in the organization even if eventually such reports turn unfounded. However, the employee should have a reasonable belief and proper grounds to justify his belief about the wrongdoing in the company. (Perlman and Perlman LLP, 2006)

Employee protections allowing those corporate fraud whistleblowers who file complaints with OSHA within 90 days to win reinstatement, back pay and benefits, compensatory damages, abatement orders, and reasonable attorney fees and costs.

On Thursday, September 8, 2016, federal regulators found that over two million fake accounts were created in a scam from Wells Fargo (Dugan). According to the New York Post, it has just been discovered that the Wells Fargo former senior executive vice president, Carrie Tolstedt, is linked to the scamming of Wells Fargo customers (Report). The many other employees were fired since the scam was discovered in 2011, however, according to the New York Post, Tolstedt was praised by Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, allowed to leave, and not lose any of her compensation (Report). This incident was highly unethical and resulted in customers and employees losing their trust in Wells Fargo.

HealthSouth financial officer William Owens contributed with the securities and exchanges commission and became an informer by recording his conversation with Scrushy to provide the government evidence for their case. In one of the conversation Scrushy said to William Owens that he could get killed if he fixed the financial statements immediately, but this problem could easily be dealt with over time.

The government examination on Solyndra looked to build up whether elected laws were disregarded. In the long run the congressional report built up that Solyndra case had abused vitality demonstration of 2005, particularly bureau of vitality affirmed advance certification by neglecting to take after due procedure. The panel additionally assessed how division of vitality oversaw government credit ensures (Weiner, 2012). The examinations unveiled that there was an irreconcilable circumstance in honoring Solyndra credit ensure subsequent to the real shareholder of the organization had political alliance with white house (Upton, 2012). In this manner, they inferred this may have impacted the rapid endorsement of credit surety to Solyndra (McNeil, 2013). This situation demonstrated unscrupulous behavior by the white house authorities and Solyndra chiefs on the grounds that they knew about irreconcilable circumstance. Solyndra directors likewise professedly damaged expense avoidance laws by petitioning for chapter 11 with the goal that they can keep a huge number of government advance as working misfortunes. This was a reasonable deviation from their ethical commitment to take after organization principles and regulations and also ensuring the enthusiasm of specialists. Solyndra slighted the procurements of Laborer Conformities and Retraining Notice (Caution) act, which expresses that specialists must be given sixty days cautioning before release. Nonetheless, the administration declined to recognize these procurements and laid-off all laborers when it petitioned for chapter 11. Couple of months after the fact, specialists sued the organization and recouped $3.5 million as a remuneration for wrong lay-offs (Bathon,

In California, eight Wells Fargo employees were convicted of committing fraud facing a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison, also each employee is charged with at least one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries another two years in prison (https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/eight-people-charged-bank-fraud-scheme-allegedly-used-information-stolen-wells-fargo). In the wake of the scandal, over 5,300 employees were fired over the course of five years for their involvements in the creation of the fake accounts. Some of the initial whistleblowers of the scandal faced retaliation by being terminated for speaking out against the orders to open fake accounts. CNN Money correspondent Matt Egan spoke with Bill Bado, a former employee of Wells Fargo, who has not been able to security another banking securities job since his termination for calling the Ethics Hotline to report the fraudulent activities.

The OSH Act of 1970 came about following a congressional finding that personal injuries and illnesses arising out of work situations impose a “substantial burden upon, and are a hindrance to, interstate commerce in terms of lost production, wage loss, medical expenses, and disability compensation payments”. Congress declared it to be within its rights, by virtue of its power to regulate commerce, to assure all people safe and healthy working conditions and to preserve human resources.

Within the United States, state and federal agencies have responded to data by publishing guidelines on the prevention of workplace violence. According to The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA) responded to research findings, union petitions, and growing awareness of the problem of workplace violence by publishing the document "Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Health Care and Social Service Workers." It should be noted that unions originally petitioned, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA) for the regulatory standard addressing workplace violence and that these union efforts continue. The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA) guidelines were based largely on guidelines developed in 1993 and incorporated in California 's state, Occupational

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), often referred to as the "OSH Act," was enacted in 1970 by President Richard M. Nixon. Its purpose is to assure safe and healthful working conditions for men and women (EPA, 2006). The Act is administered and enforced at the national level by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a division of the US Department of Labor. The application of the OSH Act in the current employment climate will be discussed as it applies to a variety of industries; considerations that are most applicable to the specific type of industry will be discussed initially, and those that are equally important regardless of the type of business will complete the section. Finally, this paper will discuss how the

Ernst & Young was the auditing firm of HealthSouth from 1984 to 2002. Due to financial hardship Healthshore grew desperate and developed a scheme to deceive not only shareholders but Ernst and Young. Inevitably whistleblowers came forth and a lawsuit ensued. The shareholder’s lawsuit against Ernst and Young never went to trial. However, the lawsuit against Healthshore ended in settlement. Though a travesty to the shareholders and employees not involved with the fraud, this fraudulent activity was necessary for it forced the SEC to hinder these types of events to occur in the future. There may still be cases similar to HealthShore going on today had it not been for the Sarbanes Oxley act enforcing stricter requirements for auditing firms.