10/19/2017
The Role of the Whistleblower Today
PROTECTING THOSE THAT PROTECT THE REST OF US
2 Speaking Up and Speaking Out
Employee Concerns Programs are designed for one purpose – protecting those employees who are in a position to speak up and speak out about issues that protect the rest of us, and making sure the issues are raised and addressed in a manner commensurate with the concern.
ECP Programs are designed to function in the organization as an alternative avenue for workers to bring up concerns that are not being addressed by management or through the corrective action system.
Employee Concerns Professionals in the programs must be credible, must have integrity, must be honest – and above all must be brave.
ECP Professionals in the programs must be technically competent enough to recognize the risks inherent in the industries they work in; must be able to imagine the consequences of failing to take appropriate action; and have the authority and skills to effectively communicate to management and concerned employees.
3 Making A Difference:
The following examples provide you with insight into the important role that has been played out – recently – in our national dialogue about the role of whistleblowers, the impact of retaliation, and the importance of creating and maintaining a work environment in which employees feel free to raise concerns without fear of reprisal.
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4 The Flint Water Crisis
5 Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha
“I rolled up my sleeves because we owe it to these kids. We had to do everything we could to mitigate this exposure,” she says. “We can’t take it away, it’s irreversible, but from the moment on that we knew the data my focus became their tomorrow.”
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha
6 Those who made a difference:
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Director of Pediatric Residency Program at Hurley Medical Center, receives Humanitarian of the Year in 2016, Freedom of Expression Courage Award for her work in identifying the impact (of lead) she was seeing on children in Flint.
Rachel Maddow. MSNBC, received an Emmy for her news coverage of the Flint Water Crisis, that brought the issue to public attention.
Dr. Marc Edwards, Virginia Tech University, received public recognition and numerous awards for his work in identifying the water contamination and speaking about it publicly.
Rachel Maddow's efforts to bring attention to the Marc Edwards and Mona Flint water crisis have Hanna-Attisha TIME Apr 20, earned her an Emmy. 2016
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7 Those who made a difference:
City of Flint Water Plant operator Mike Glasgow is still off the job; 15 months after refusing to turn the water treatment plant back on and warning his management that doing so would result in a “potential disaster.” “Mr. Glasgow attempted to call [the police] – that would have been the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) -- and they never responded....Mr. Glasgow sent the flares up when nobody else did. He’s the reason that we were able to get started because he did try, and no one responded to him.” Ruth Carter, Special Assistant to the Michigan Attorney General.
8 Those who made a difference:
EPA Region 5’s Regulations Manager, Miguel Del Toral, was silenced and intimidated by EPA management after warning them about the state of the Flint water crisis, and risks to the children of Flint. After an email with his warnings was leaked to the press, he was removed from his responsibilities.
“A major concern from a public health standpoint is the absence of corrosion control treatment in the City of Flint for mitigating lead and copper levels in the drinking water,” Del Toral wrote. “Recent drinking water sample results indicate the presence of high lead results in the drinking water, which is to be expected in a public water system that is not providing corrosion control treatment.”
9 Those who didn’t:
15 public officials have been criminally indicted for failing to exercise their duties and responsibilities and prevent the contamination;
5 charged with involuntary manslaughter as a result of Legionnaire’s disease deaths in Flint attributed to water contamination;
Governor Snyder’s key assistant responsible for Flint water has been terminated; But, contaminated pipes and water continue to impact health of the people in Flint, especially children.
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10 Case Study One: Contamination and Falsification Allegations
Contractor employee raises concern that nuclear material is being inadequately maintained, the employees are being contaminated while performing their job duties, and that the records on materials control are being falsified;
Employee raises concern to the chain of command who flatly deny it is possible, but receives no other response;
Employee raises concern to union safety officials, who strenuously object to the concerns because of the impact on potentially losing jobs;
You, the site ECP representative, hear through the “grapevine” that the concerned employee is going to talk to NRC and the press about the concerns. No one contacts you about the concern directly.
11 What action should be taken?
1. What initiating action do you take?
Self-initiate an ECP concern?
Contact the alleged concerned employee?
Tell management about the issues?
2. What issues need to be investigated?
3. What would you do about the union reaction to the concern?
The History of Nuclear Whistleblowers
In 1974 Karen Silkwood “blew the whistle” on Kerr- McGee in Oklahoma; she was killed in a yet unsolved car accident.
In the end the lawsuit resulted in an important ruling that all things nuclear were the subject of the federal government authority, except for state claims.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
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12 2003 Persons of the Year
14 “Whistleblowing” Actions That Have Impacted Our World Today
1972 “Deep Throat” – [FBI Associate Director Mark Felt], anonymous until 2005, revealed Watergate Scandal, that brought down United States President.
1986 Challenger Accident “whistleblowers” try, and fail, to prevent the accident.
1971 Daniel Ellsberg – Military Analyst, who leaked the “Pentagon Papers” about the US involvement in the Vietnam War.
2013 Edward Snowden – Former National Security Agency contractor leaked classified information revealing government gathering information on private citizens as part of massive electronic surveillance program. Charged with espionage and currently residing in Russia.
2013 Bradley [Chelsea] Manning – Revealed to Wikileaks classified military diplomatic records about the war in Iraq. Convicted of espionage, imprisoned (35-year sentence), and granted clemency/early release.
“Whistleblowing” Actions That Have 15 Impacted Our World Today (cont’d)
1968 – Ernest Fitzgerald. DOD auditor reports a 2.3 billion dollar cost overrun on the Lockheed c-5 aircraft program, $200.00 hammers and $900.00 toilet seats. Pres. Nixon ordered him fired, ultimately he was reinstated.
1986 – Casey Ruud testifies to Congress about missing plutonium, and public and worker health and safety impacts, leading to stopping plutonium production.
1995 – Jeffrey Wigand , VP for R&D at Brown & Williamson does 60 Minutes interview about the prior knowledge of the health dangers of smoking.
2001 – Sharron Watkins, VP of Enron, reveals depth of Enron scandal.
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16 Richard Parks
Case Two: Safety Issue Wrapped in Work 17 Environment Wrapped in Personality Conflict
A very upset employee comes to your office and declares that he is going to the newspaper and the regulator because he has been treated with disrespect and humiliated in front of his peers because he tried to raise a concern (about a regulatory compliance issue about installation of safety widgets), at a meeting, and his peers told him he was technically incompetent.
In addition, his boss said that the issue he was concerned about was irrelevant and not important.
The concerned employee is regarded as a poor performer and constant whiner about a lot of topics, many outside of his area of expertise.
You are very familiar with the employee because he is a “frequent” complainer to your organization, and his concerns rarely have significance.
18 What action should be taken?
1. What are the concerns that need to be addressed?
2. What actions are you going to take to respond to the concerns?
3. What ideas do you have to “give yourself space” to credibly investigate the concerns?
4. How will you deal with the management of these concerns?
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19 George Gallatis and Millstone
It was the 100th concern that revealed a serious violation of technical specifications regarding the fuel pool storage
20 Public Accountability Is Changing
Whistleblowing is now rarely a “he said – she said” case of credibility determination. Potential whistleblowers have evidence from documents to emails to text messages to all forms of electronic proof that what they have said is true.
The public is now well ingrained to understand the basic dynamics of whistleblower retaliation, and distrust management:
Reveal misconduct, non-compliance, safety issue and suffer immediate adverse consequences usually means that the adverse action was retaliation.
Retaliation for raising concerns means that there is likely a “chilling effect” on the rest of the impacted employees.
What does this mean for you and your 21 programs --
Management does NOT want to have a safety disaster or a public image disaster on “their watch.” It is usually fatal to senior management and the corporate image.
Some employees have learned to express concerns in terms that get attention, others have not learned to express the issues that should be raised. You need to keep your eye on the issues.
Most companies now have policies and processes to address concerns, prohibit retaliation and encourage “speaking up.”
BUT all of these pieces of developing the right culture is part of your job --
Getting workers to speak up when they have concerns
Getting management to listen and act
Prohibiting retaliation against workers who raise concerns
Rewarding behaviors that make the work force and processes safer
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