The Social Security Administration (SSA) requires its employees to engage in periodic training exercises regarding their rights as employees and the protections against retaliation that are available to whistleblowers. Unfortunately, it does not appear as though the training is effective in actually protecting whistleblowers because the SSA continues to terminate people who expose wrongdoing within the agency.
For example, one SSA employee was recently fired four months after exposing abuse, waste, and fraud within his workplace. Ron Klym worked in the Milwaukee Office of Disability Adjudication and Review until just a few months after he spoke with Wisconsin Watchdog about problems in his office involving delays in adjudicating disability cases. He had also reported retaliation and misconduct to another government agency in the past. Before his termination, Klym had received excellent performance reviews for his work with the Agency.
Unfortunately, Ron Klym is not the only stellar SSA employee who ended up as a whistleblower without a job. Deborah Holland from the Madison Office of Disability Adjudication and Review lost her management position and was placed on a temporary administrative leave after exposing disturbing cover-ups and corruption in her workplace. Holland and Klym are just two of several employees who have alleged various types of wrongdoing within the SSA.
The whistleblower protection training for SSA employees is required by the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (the No FEAR Act). The intended purpose of the Act is to increase government agencies’ accountability for violations of whistleblower protection and antidiscrimination laws. Each employee must complete the training, which currently consists of a twenty-one-minute video and electronic certification, every two years. The whistleblowers who have lost their jobs do not feel as though the training is effective at protecting SSA employees from retaliation or discrimination because there is an ongoing workplace culture of retaliation. In other words, despite the mandatory whistleblower protection training, SSA employees can expect that if they blow the whistle, they will suffer for it in one way or another.
Barrett Law PLLC: Protecting The Rights of Mississippi Whistleblowers
The SSA is just one government agency where mistreatment of whistleblowers seems to be integrated into agency culture. Individuals who work in agencies like these are likely to feel discouraged, and like there’s nothing that they can do to prevent the actions of those who are ready to deal harshly with them if they shed any light on things within their workplaces that are just not right. It is important that individuals who work in similar environments expose what goes on in their workplaces so that that the wrongdoing can be addressed and the harm that is being caused by the wrongdoing can stop. Whistleblowers take risks when they do what they do, including the risk of job loss, mistreatment, and other very personal forms of harm. If you have experienced discrimination or retaliation as the result of your actions as a whistleblower, the Mississippi Whistleblower Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC may be able to help you. Call us today, at 1 (601) 790-1505 to arrange for your initial consultation.
