Anti-retaliation protections

Retaliation rules are statutory. They are not a term of this website. The summaries below stay inside the sentences of the cited documents.

False Claims Act

The Justice Department primer reprints 31 U.S.C. § 3730(h). An employee, contractor, or agent who is discharged, demoted, suspended, threatened, harassed, or otherwise discriminated against in the terms and conditions of employment because of lawful acts to stop a violation of the false claims subchapter is entitled to relief to make the person whole. The reprinted relief includes reinstatement with seniority, twice the back pay, interest on the back pay, and compensation for special damages, including litigation costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees. The action may be brought in federal district court.

SEC

The SEC’s FAQ says employers may not discharge, demote, suspend, harass, or otherwise discriminate against a person for lawful acts in providing information under the whistleblower program or assisting an investigation. It says the SEC may bring an enforcement action. It also says the Sarbanes-Oxley Act may allow a complaint to the Department of Labor for retaliation tied to reports of possible securities-law violations. Exchange Act Rule 21F-17, the FAQ says, prohibits anyone from taking action to prevent a person from contacting the SEC directly.

CFTC

A July 12, 2018 CFTC release says that under the Dodd-Frank Act, employers may not retaliate against whistleblowers for reporting possible violations of the Commodity Exchange Act to the CFTC. This page does not add remedies the release does not state.

FinCEN statute

Section 5323, in the 2023 U.S. Code edition on GovInfo, prohibits an employer from discharging, demoting, suspending, threatening, blacklisting, harassing, or otherwise discriminating against a whistleblower for specified lawful reports, including reports to Treasury, Justice, a federal regulator, Congress, or a supervisor. The statute’s stated relief includes reinstatement, twice the back pay with interest, and compensatory damages, including litigation costs, expert witness fees, and reasonable attorneys’ fees. It also sets a complaint procedure that starts at the Department of Labor, with a later district-court path, and it sets time limits. Read the section for those limits rather than a paraphrase.

IRS

The IRS claim page does not recite a damages formula. It says the Department of Labor protects whistleblowers from employer retaliation and points readers to Whistleblowers.gov.

What this page does not do

It does not say that every report is protected, that a deadline is still open, or that a particular firing was illegal. Those conclusions depend on facts and on the statute that applies.