Yesterday, Congress passed a bill that significantly strengthened protections for federal employees who blow the whistle on waste, fraud, abuse, and illegality. According to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a federal agency that enforces whistleblower laws, the new law will, among other things: Overturn legal precedents that narrowed protections…
Today the New York Times ran a story about the increase this year of employers expressly telling employees who they think the employees should vote for in the election. Until the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United decision in 2010, laws prohibited companies from using corporate money to persuade employees…
Today, the U.S. District Court in Bangor rejected UPS Cartage Services, Inc.’s (UPS) argument that a federal whistleblower law which protects truck drivers, the Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA), did not prohibit it from retaliating against a truck driver who reported safety problems with its trucks. Former UPS truck driver,…
Today, the U.S. District Court of Maine ruled on three motions to dismiss which Alutiiq, LLC and two related companies (collectively Alutiiq) filed in response to retaliation claims that two whistleblowers filed against it. The whistleblowers, Craig Manfield and Janice Hendricks, who are represented by the Maine Employee Rights Group,…
Yesterday, the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Maine, Massachusetts, and other states, ruled that a reasonable jury could find that Aggregate Industries retaliated against a whistleblower who revealed the company’s illegal practices in connection with the “Big Dig.” The Big Dig was a massive highway project,…
An investigator with the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has found that On the Edge Chipping in Phillips, Maine unlawfully fired Daniel Harnden, a skidder operator, because Mr. Harnden complained about charges the company put on his personal John Deere account. Mr. Harnden complained to On the Edge about the…
Today, the U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine denied Lincare, Inc.’s motion to dismiss a claim of retaliation under the False Claims Act (FCA). The anti-retaliation provisions of the FCA protect whistleblowers from retaliation when they “pursue, investigate, or contribute to an action exposing fraud against the [federal] government.” Former…
The Maine Employee Rights Group is currently representing two whistleblowers in a lawsuit against Alutiiq, LLC and some related companies (collectively referred to here as Alutiiq). Alutiiq entered into a contract with the Navy and began to provide security services at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) in 2009. Shortly after,…
The Maine Employee Rights Group is currently representing a whistleblower in a lawsuit against Praxair, Inc., one of its subsidiaries, and a company it acquired named Sermatech International. The whistleblower, Roger Lehoux, worked for Sermatech in Biddeford before Praxair acquired it. While employed at Sermatech, Mr. Lehoux worked on the…
Manske v. UPS Cartage Services Inc. Chief Judge John A. Woodcock of the United States District Court of Maine in Bangor recently ruled in favor of whistleblower plaintiff Dennis Manske, by upholding Magistrate Judge John Rich’s decision to allow Mr. Manske and his counsel to delay production of certain audio…