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2 J. Minn. Pub. L. 108 (1981)
Whistleblowers' Protection Act

handle is hein.journals/hplp2 and id is 114 raw text is: WHISTLEBLOWERS' PROTECTION ACT In January of this year, Michi- gan became the first state in the country to enact a whistle-blowing protection act. Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 15.361-369 (1981). The law is designed to protect employees in private industry who are fired or disciplined for reporting alleged vio- lations of federal, state or local law to public authorities. Any aggrieved person may bring a civil action for appropriate injunctive relief or ac- tual damages. A court, in rendering judgment, may order reinstatement of the employee, the payment of back wages, full reinstatement of fringe benefits and seniority rights, or any combination of the above reme- dies. This law is a result of Michi- gan's PBB (polybrominated byphe- nyls) tragedy. After a Michigan company mistakenly shipped a poi- sonous fire retardant to state feed grain cooperatives, farmers lost mil- lions of dollars in livestock. The long-term effects of this accident are still unknown, specifically what was done to the health of Michigan residents who ate PBB-affected food. Yet a government inquiry revealed that employees of the company were warned not to volunteer to investi- gators that the PBB accident might have been the cause or else they would be fired. This innovative statute is de- signed to encourage more responsi- bility in the corporate sector. It could assist, for example, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in locating illegal dumping of toxic materials. Professor Alan Westin of Columbia University, however, has pointed out a major defect in the law. He suggests that the law ought to require an employee, before going public, to use a company's own in- ternal procedures for complaint. He does, however, suggest excep- tions for situations where deliberate misconduct is known to top manage- ment or where an employee reason- ably fears physical harm. Westin, Michigan's Law to Protect the Whistle Blowers, Wall St. J., April 13, 1981, at 16, col. 3. The Michigan bill did draw op- position from employer groups on the grounds that it could lead to harassing actions and generate con- siderable amounts of litigation by employees fired for valid reasons. But if some of these fears could be alleviated through provisions such as one which would award companies damages for vexatious litigation, this law could stand a reasonable chance of passage in Minnesota. The Mich- igan law is reproduced below for consideration by interested Minne- sota citizens. Daniel Boivin* *Third-year law student, Hamline University School of Law; B.A. Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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