Add Another Whistle - Consumer Product Safety Act

Before leaving town, Congress added yet another whistleblowing provision that was signed into law by President Bush today. A copy of the Whistleblower provision can be found on the DOL's website, Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, Sec. 219. Whistleblower protections.

Here's the substance of the whistleblowing provision:

No manufacturer, private labeler, distributor, or retailer, may discharge an employee or otherwise discriminate against an employee with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because the employee, whether at the employee's initiative or in the ordinary course of the employee's duties (or any person acting pursuant to a request of the employee)—

‘‘(1) provided, caused to be provided, or is about to provide or cause to be provided to the employer, the Federal Government, or the attorney general of a State information relating to any violation of, or any act or omission the employee reasonably believes to be a violation of any provision of this Act or any other Act enforced by the Commission, or any order, rule, regulation, standard, or ban under any such Acts.

The Commission referred to is the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Like other federal whistleblower statutes it will be enforced by OSHA.

The statute also has protection for employees who participate in proceedings.

What regulations might an employee report under? There's a few of them.

Here's the list:

CHAPTER II--CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION
Part

1000 Commission organization and functions
1009 General statements of policy or interpretation
1010 [Reserved]
1011 Notice of agency activities
1012 Meetings policy--Meetings between agency personnel and outside parties
1013 Government in the Sunshine Act, rules for Commission meetings
1014 Policies and procedures implementing the Privacy Act of 1974
1015 Procedures for disclosure or production of information under the Freedom of Information Act
1016 Policies and procedures for information disclosure and Commission employee testimony in private litigation
1017 [Reserved]
1018 Advisory committee management
1019 Export of noncomplying, misbranded, or banned products
1020 Small business
1021 Environmental review
1025 Rules of practice for adjudicative proceedings
1027 Salary offset
1028 Protection of human subjects
1030 Employee standards of conduct
1031 Commission participation and Commission employee involvement in voluntary standards activities
1033 Display of control numbers for collection of information requirements under the Paperwork Reduction Act
1034 Enforcement of nondiscrimination on the basis of handicap in programs or activities conducted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission
1051 Procedure for petitioning for rulemaking
1052 Procedural regulations for informal oral presentations in proceedings before the Consumer Product Safety Commission
1061 Applications for exemption from preemption
1101 Information disclosure under section 6(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act
1105 Contributions to costs of participants in development of consumer product safety standards
1115 Substantial product hazard reports
1116 Reports submitted pursuant to section 37 of the Consumer Product Safety Act
1117 Reporting of choking incidents involving marbles, small balls, latex balloons and other small parts
1118 Investigations, inspections and inquiries under the Consumer Product Safety Act
1145 Regulation of products subject to other acts under the Consumer Product Safety Act
1201 Safety standard for architectural glazing materials
1202 Safety standard for matchbooks
1203 Safety standard for bicycle helmets
1204 Safety standard for omnidirectional citizens band base station antennas
1205 Safety standard for walk-behind power lawn mowers
1207 Safety standard for swimming pool slides
1209 Interim safety standard for cellulose insulation
1210 Safety standard for cigarette lighters
1211 Safety standard for automatic residential garage door operators
1212 Safety standard for multi-purpose lighters
1213 Safety standard for entrapment hazards in bunk beds
1301 Ban of unstable refuse bins
1302 Ban of extremely flammable contact adhesives
1303 Ban of lead-containing paint and certain consumer products bearing lead-containing paint
1304 Ban of consumer patching compounds containing respirable free-form asbestos
1305 Ban of artificial emberizing materials (ash and embers) containing respirable free-form asbestos
1306 Ban of hazardous lawn darts
1401 Self pressurized consumer products containing chlorofluorocarbons: Requirements to provide the Commission with performance and technical data; requirements to notify consumers at point of purchase of performance and technical data
1402 CB base station antennas, TV antennas, and supporting structures
1404 Cellulose insulation
1406 Coal and wood burning appliances--notification of performance and technical data 1500
Hazardous substances and articles; administration and enforcement regulations
1501 Method for identifying toys and other articles intended for use by children under 3 years of age which present choking, aspiration, or ingestion hazards because of small parts
1502 Procedures for formal evidentiary public hearing
1505 Requirements for electrically operated toys or other electrically operated articles intended for use by children
1507 Fireworks devices
1508 Requirements for full-size baby cribs
1509 Requirements for non-full-size baby cribs
1510 Requirements for rattles
1511 Requirements for pacifiers
1512 Requirements for bicycles
1513 Requirements for bunk beds
1602 Statements of policy or interpretation
1605 Investigations, inspections and inquiries pursuant to the Flammable Fabrics Act
1608 General rules and regulations under the Flammable Fabrics Act
1609 Text of the Flammable Fabrics Act of 1953, as amended in 1954, prior to 1967 amendment and revision
1610 Standard for the flammability of clothing textiles
1611 Standard for the flammability of vinyl plastic film
1615 Standard for the flammability of children's sleepwear: Sizes 0 through 6X (FF 3-71)
1616 Standard for the flammability of children's sleepwear: Sizes 7 through 14 (FF 5-74)
1630 Standard for the surface flammability of carpets and rugs (FF 1-70)
1631 Standard for the surface flammability of small carpets and rugs (FF 2-70)
1632 Standard for the flammability of mattresses and mattress pads (FF 4-72, amended)
1700 Poison prevention packaging
1701 Statements of policy and interpretation
1702 Petitions for exemptions from Poison Prevention Packaging Act requirements; petition procedures and requirements
1750 Standard for devices to permit the opening of household refrigerator doors from the inside