On January 22, 2015, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (“OSC”) published a proposed rule that, if adopted, would extend its existing whistleblower regulations beyond government employees to include certain employees of federal contractors, subcontractors, and grantees. This proposed rule change is designed to provide a parallel mechanism for reporting types of government wrongdoing covered by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 (“NDAA”), which itself extended federal employee whistleblower protections to certain employees of federal contractors, subcontractors, and grantees.
In proposing the rule, the OSC recognized that the landscape of the federal workplace has changed significantly since Congress first provided whistleblower protections to federal employees in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. “In the modern workforce, employees of contractors, subcontractors, and grantees often work alongside Federal employees, having similar if not identical duties. Thus contractors are similarly situated to observe or experience the same type of wrongdoing as are Federal employees.”
Continue Reading Proposed Rule Would Extend OSC Whistleblower Protections to Government Contractors