{"id":5260,"date":"2019-12-11T16:11:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T16:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedems.com\/irwin\/?p=5260"},"modified":"2019-12-11T16:11:17","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T16:11:17","slug":"irwin-introduces-bill-to-close-whistleblower-protection-act-loophole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2019\/12\/11\/irwin-introduces-bill-to-close-whistleblower-protection-act-loophole\/","title":{"rendered":"Irwin Introduces Bill to Close Whistleblower Protection Act Loophole"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>LANSING \u2014 Sen.&nbsp;<strong>Jeff Irwin<\/strong>&nbsp;(D-Ann Arbor) introduced legislation to close a loophole in Michigan\u2019s Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) exposed by a 2016 Michigan Supreme Court case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the case,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/courts.michigan.gov\/Courts\/MichiganSupremeCourt\/Clerks\/Recent%20Opinions\/15-16%20Term%20Opinions\/151374.pdf\"><em>Pace v. Edel-Harrelson<\/em>, the Michigan Supreme Court unanimously ruled whistleblowers aren\u2019t protected from retaliatory discharge claims if they report a&nbsp;<strong>planned<\/strong>&nbsp;violation of the law<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 only if they report a violation that is ongoing or one that has already occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhistleblowers are doing a public service and we need to close this loophole to protect whistleblowers who take courageous action to protect people from harm,\u201d Sen. Irwin said. \u201cWe say, \u201csee something, say something,\u2019 but the law doesn\u2019t protect whistleblowers until somebody has already been hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bill would close the loophole by adding language to the Whistleblower Protection Act to make the reporting of a suspected violation of the law that has yet to occur, a \u2018protected activity.\u2019&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Irwin recognized this shortcoming in the law while serving on the Special Joint Committee on the Flint Water Public Emergency. During those hearings, the Flint water treatment plant operator, Mike Glasgow, testified that he didn\u2019t believe the city was ready to start treating drinking water, but he had no protections under the WPA and, to keep his job, complied with the orders from his supervisor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As the law stands, whistleblowers can be fired by their employers if they report a planned violation of the law or if they report a dangerous situation that has not yet caused actual harm,\u201d Sen. Irwin added. \u201cI hope my colleagues see the importance of this legislation and I look forward to working with them to advance this through our legislative process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LANSING \u2014 Sen.&nbsp;Jeff Irwin&nbsp;(D-Ann Arbor) introduced legislation to close a loophole in Michigan\u2019s Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) exposed by a 2016 Michigan Supreme Court case. In the case,&nbsp;Pace v. Edel-Harrelson, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pr"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.4 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Irwin Introduces Bill to Close Whistleblower Protection Act Loophole - Senator Jeff Irwin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.senatedems.com\/irwin\/2019\/12\/11\/irwin-introduces-bill-to-close-whistleblower-protection-act-loophole\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Irwin Introduces Bill to Close Whistleblower Protection Act Loophole\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LANSING \u2014 Sen.&nbsp;Jeff Irwin&nbsp;(D-Ann Arbor) introduced legislation to close a loophole in Michigan\u2019s Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) exposed by a 2016 Michigan Supreme Court case. 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