Stan McClain’s whistleblower legislation moves forward

TALLAHASSEE, FLA.10/25/17-Rep. Stan McClain, R-Belleview, talks about his bill to outlaw threats publicly posted online to kill or do bodily injury to others during the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee meeting Wednesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

The Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee advanced legislation that seeks to amend Florida’s whistleblower protections for employees of private employers.

Ocala Republican Sen. Stan McClain introduced the bill (SB 1776). The measure states that employers would be unable to retaliate against an employee who discloses illegal practices by their employer to the government or objects to or refuses to participate in an unlawful practice.

“Senate Bill 1776 institutes a process for advanced notice to cure alleged violations,” McClain said. “Provides for consistency in the statute of limitations, adds additional specificity requirements for the claim, saves taxpayer dollars by avoiding duplication and expenditure of government resources, and prevents inconsistent legal precedence and ensure employees pursue a single statutory remedy. All of this would be under Florida’s Whistleblower Act.”

Orlando Democratic Sen. Carlos Smith, asked for clarification around the bill requiring employees to report any illegal activity to their employer, and questioned if that would provide the employer the opportunity to destroy evidence concerning a reported illegal activity.

Reading from the staff analysis on the bill, Smith asked “If an employee is required to notify their employer to give them an opportunity to correct the illegal activity … aren’t they giving the employer time to destroy evidence of illegal activity? Help me understand this.”

McClain responded by saying the employer may not yet know that any illegal activity had been occurring.

“Possibly, but I still think that the violation would exist,” McClain said. “I think that there’s a lot of other opportunities they [employees] would be able to go through. What we’re trying to do is streamline the process … an employer at that point may not know there was a violation and so this would give him an opportunity to cure the violation since it’s been pointed out to the employer.”

McClain said the bill would not put limits on employees making whistleblower complaints and added that there are other agencies where employees could go to report their employers’ activities if they believe them to be illegal, such as reporting a violation to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

“We wanna make sure that whatever claim is being made, it is being made to the proper authority,” McClain said.

The committee passed the measure by a vote of 6 to 3 and it will now go to the Senate Judiciary Committee.