Enforcement statistics covering fiscal year (FY) 2019 released separately over the last few weeks by four federal agencies with jurisdiction over retaliation complaints filed by corporate whistleblowers or administering “bounty hunter” awards given to whistleblowers show for the most part relatively flat numbers compared to the previous year.
This memorandum summarizes the whistleblower statistical reports for FY 2019 issued respectively by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
While FY 2019 complaint and claim numbers showed little to no growth as compared to the previous year, there are some recent trends that are worth pointing out. For example, the percentage of “merit” findings by OSHA on whistleblower retaliation claims dropped again to a scant 0.8%, down 40.9% from FY 2018, when a mere 1.5% were found to have merit. DOJ also reports that the number of lawsuits filed by bounty hunters on the federal government’s behalf has been dropping steadily since FY 2017, as has the amount of bounties recovered.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.