Whistleblower is just a term placed on a person who reveals misconduct inside an organization, to the general public or even to those in positions of authority. The whistleblower is just a person, usually a worker, in a government agency or private enterprise who makes a disclosure to the general public or even to those in power, of mismanagement, dishonesty, illegality, or some other wrongdoing.
Since the 1960s, the general public value of whistleblower has been increasingly recognized. Federal and state statutes and regulations have been enacted to guard whistleblowers from various kinds of retribution. Even with no statute, several decisions encourage and Nashville Whistle Lawyer protect whistleblowers on grounds of public policy. The federal False Claims Act (31 U.S.C.A. § 3729) also rewards a whistleblower that brings case against a business, making a forged claim or commits fraud against the government.
People performing the role of whistleblowers are often the subject matter of retaliation by their employers. Normally the employer discharges the whistleblower, who is often an at-will employee. At-will employees are people with no specific term of employment. The employee may quit anytime and the employer has the right to fire the employee without having to quote a reason. However, the judiciary and legislatures have formed exceptions for whistleblowers that are at-will employees. Employees who blow the whistle on issues that affect only private interests will generally be unsuccessful in maintaining a reason behind action for expulsion in violation of public policy. As an over-all rule, employees asserting that they were dismissed for disclosing internal corporate misconducts have been unsuccessful in determining public policy exceptions to the at-will rule. It can be seen that grievances about internal company policy do not involve public policy supporting unjust dismissal suits.
Many states have enforced whistleblower statutes to guard and safeguard the interests of the whistleblower, but these statutes vary widely in coverage. Some statutes tend to use only to public employees, some affect both public and private employees, and others affect public employees and employees of public contractors.