Lawmaker Wants Better Whistleblower Protection

Michigan has statutory protections in place to protect whistleblowers. Many businesses have the whistleblower protection poster from the state stuck on a wall somewhere.
The protection basically protects you from retaliatory actions by an employer if you,  “…report a violation or a suspected violation of federal, state or local laws, rules or regulations to a public body.”

Seems simple enough. But not so fast. A Republican State Representative has been on a mission to get state government employees legal protection regardless of whether a Democrat or Republican is holding the Governor’s job.  Midland Republican Annette Glenn is now in her second term as a State Representative. She saw fellow Representatives overwhelmingly approve her idea to improve protection for state employees in the last session.  But the State Senate failed to take up her legislation and it “died” from lack of action in the upper chamber.

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Now, with word that former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder facing charges over the water crisis in Flint, Representative Glenn believes there will be more attention given to her legislation.  She believes that had stronger protections been in place for state employees when the Flint water crisis was developing, more information would have come to light that might have prevented much of that mess from getting any worse. But now the state will be paying out close to one billion dollars to settle most of the legal claims resulting from the Flint debacle.  The Midland Representative is re-introducing her whistleblower legislation and asking all state lawmakers to quickly vote for approval to get the bill in front of Governor Whitmer for a presumed signing into law ceremony.