The Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) of the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a report finding that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) must improve its handling of whistleblower complaints during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  The OIG report details how the combination of staffing shortages within OSHA’s whistleblower program and a rise in whistleblower complaints due to the coronavirus pandemic has the potential to severely hinder the agency’s ability to investigate claims in a timely manner.

OSHA’s whistleblower program enforces 23 whistleblower statutes that prohibit employers from retaliating against employees when they report violations of various workplace safety, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, and securities laws.  Under the program, employees are eligible for reinstatement, back pay wages, restored benefits, and other remedies.

The OIG report found that OSHA’s whistleblower program received 30 percent more whistleblower complaints during the first four months of the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to the same period in 2019.  However, the report found that the whistleblower program as currently constituted did not have the capacity to match the increase in complaints, and the report offered recommendations as to how DOL could improve the program in light of the increased number of complaints.

Read the report here.