{"id":22250,"date":"2020-01-28T21:32:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T21:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/01\/28\/feds-have-fewer-whistleblower-rights-than-in-the-private-sector\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:56:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:56:43","slug":"feds-have-fewer-whistleblower-rights-than-in-the-private-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/hr\/2020\/01\/28\/feds-have-fewer-whistleblower-rights-than-in-the-private-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds have fewer whistleblower rights than in the private sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Federal employees lack the ability to seek legal remedies to address issues of retaliation when they act as whistleblowers, one of many oversights in federal whistleblower protections, according to witnesses that spoke before the House Oversight and Reform Committee Jan. 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFederal civil servants are the only major sector of the workforce that don\u2019t have the right to bring whistleblower cases to U.S. district court and seek a jury trial,\u201d said David Colapinto, founder and general counsel at the National Whistleblower Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy contrast, the legal protections for whistleblowers in private industry, publicly traded companies, federal contractors and even in state and local government exceed the whistleblower rights and remedies currently available to federal employees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In cases where a federal employee believes they have been retaliated against because of a protected whistleblower disclosure they had made, that employee is expected to put the issue through an investigation process within the agency, one which can often be lengthy and could ultimately fail to protect the employee.<\/p>\n\n\n\t