Whistle Blowing
One major difficulty surrounding the issue of whistle blowing is the definition of it. Many attempts have been made, and several differ slightly. A good working definition is that "whistle blowing occurs when a current or former employee discloses illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practices under the control of the employer to persons or organizations that may be able to take corrective action (Gomez-Mejia, 11)." There are several elements to this definition that must be explored. Firstly, the whistleblower must be (or have been in the past) engaged in an employment relationship with the company in question. This means that 'whistle blowing' does not apply to clients, concerned citizens, or anyone else that chooses to go public with information they may have become privy to that may be grounds for corrective action. Secondly, the ill practice or omission being reported must be under the employer's control rendering, the employer accountable. Hypothetically speaking, if a stockbroker were to report that co-workers were practicing insider trading, it would not be whistle blowing unless the brokerage firm condones the practice and/or failed to take the precautions necessary to deter insider trading. Thirdly,
Some also choose to break down the definition of whistle blowing into two categories, 'internal' and 'external'. The provisions should deal strictly with the act or omission on behalf of the employer and the actions carried out by the employee in their dealing with the situation. Both the courts and arbitral boards have stressed the importance of an employee attempting to resolve the illicit act internally before going public with it, as in the case of two prison guards who were dismissed by the British Columbia Ministry of the Attorney General after making allegations of mismanagement to the media (Competition Bureau, Industry Canada). An example of this in the federal jurisdiction is Section 29 of the Competition Act, which assures employee anonymity by forbidding any person enforcing the act from revealing the name of the whistleblower to anyone but a Canadian law enforcement agency (Competition Bureau, Industry Canada). " Physical threats and death threats were made against Jeffrey and the rest of his family by anonymous callers advising him not to "mess with tobacco anymore (Ibid). At the federal level, even though no broad whistle blowing legislation has been defined as of yet, several bills have been introduced since 1986 to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act, Canada Labour Code, and Public Service Employment Act to protect whistleblowers that are employed under the federal jurisdiction (Competition Bureau, Industry Canada). In the United States for example, the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 protects public sector employees at the federal level (Johansen). Also, the game of business affects not only the lives of the players, but the general public as well (Ibid). Australia, another commonwealth country, has amended its Public Service Regulations to protect public service employees from victimization after reporting breaches of the Australian Public Service Code of Conduct (Ibid). Wigand was concerned about and continued anyway so as to not negatively affect sales (Ibid). As sad as it may be, the media is an extremely powerful factor in forming the opinions of citizens and consumers. Currently no general legislation within Canada exists for the purpose of protecting whistleblowers, although some legislation does outline provisions that encourage employees to take action against their employer's illicit actions or omissions and offer the employee some protection from the retaliations that may result (Johansen). For example, Section 50 (1) of the Occupational Health & Safety Act in Ontario outlines that no employer or person acting on behalf of an employer shall, impose any penalty upon a worker, intimidate or coerce a worker, dismiss, discipline, or suspend a worker (or threaten to do so) because the worker has sought the enforcement of the Act (Occupational Health and Safety Act of Ontario).
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Acceptance Essays
