Bank Whistleblower Lawsuit

The United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced in a press release at http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/osha/osha20100332.htm that it has ordered Tennessee Commerce Bank in Nasville to reinstate a former corporate officer and pay more than $1 million in back wages, interest, attorney’s fees, compensatory damages and other relief.  According to the March 18, 2010 press release, the department found that the bank had fired the individual in violation of the whistleblower protection provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.  As further stated in the press release, the complaint, which was filed with OSHA in 2008, alleged that the employee was placed on administrative leave in March 2008 and fired in May 2008 after raising concerns about internal controls, employee accounts, insider trading and other issues.  OSHA investigated the complaint as part of its responsibilities to enforce the whistleblower provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley and 16 other statutes protecting employees who report violations of various securities laws; trucking, airline, nuclear power, pipeline, environmental, rail and workplace safety and health regulations; and consumer product safety laws.  Under the numerous whistleblower provisions enacted by Congress, employers are prohibited from retaliating against employees who raise various protected concerns or provide protected information to the employer or to the government. 

In this regard, fact sheets and detailed information on employee whistleblower rights are available online at http://www.osha.gov/dep/oia/whistleblower/index.html .  Employees who believe they have been retaliated against for engaging in protected conduct may file a complaint with the secretary of labor for an investigation by OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program.  More information on this subject is available at http://www.osha.gov .