What protections do Federal Employees have under the Whistleblower Protection Act?
The purpose of the Whistleblower Protection Act is to encourage government personnel to disclose government wrongdoing to persons who may be in a position to remedy the problem without fearing retaliatory action by their supervisors or those who might be harmed by the disclosures. However, criticism directed to the wrongdoers themselves is not normally viewable as whistleblowing. Therefore, it’s not enough for federal employees to complain to their supervisors about violations of the law. They need to complain to persons not ordinarily in their supervisory chain, such as a congressman or secretary about the violation. That person has to be in a position to correct fraudulent or illegal activity. What types of whistleblower complaints are protected? In short, federal employees must demonstrate that they engaged in whistle blowing activity by making a protected disclosure under 5 U.S.C. 2302(b)(8), i.e., (s)he disclosed information that (s)he reasonably believed evidenced a violation of
