The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) will now oversee worker retaliation complaints filed under two new whistleblower statutes—the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act and the Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) Act. The Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act, which was signed into law in December 2020, heightens protections for whistleblowers who report criminal antitrust violations and provides incentives for more to come forward by offering safeguards to those who provide information related to Sherman Act violations. The recently enacted AML Act established a whistleblower program for individuals who report AML violations.
OSHA announced that it plans to issue specific rules on how it will process retaliation complaints filed by anti-money-laundering and criminal antitrust whistleblowers. Until then, it will process such whistleblower complaints under the procedures outlined in the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century, a law enacted in 2000 which provides protection for workers in the airline industry.
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