What is a Whistleblower?

Every year, thousands of Americans witness wrongdoing on the job. What they witness may jeopardize the health, safety or lives of others. They may see managers at a nuclear facility violate a safety code, a chemical company dump hazardous waste unlawfully, or a food processing plant attempt to sell contaminated and dangerous meat to consumers.

Most employees remain silent. Others choose to bear witness and speak out. They seek to make a difference by blowing the whistle on unethical conduct in the workplace. Our composite definition of whistleblower taken from combined state, federal and international cases is an employee who exercises from speech rights to challenge corporate and government abuses of power that betray the public trust.
Blowing the whistle may include:

(a) reporting wrongdoing or a violation of the law to the proper authorities such as a supervisor, a hotline or an Inspector General
(b) refusing to participate in workplace wrongdoing
(c) testifying in a legal proceeding
(d) leaking evidence of wrongdoing to the media

For more information, see http://whistleblower.org