nment. The Act authorized private citizens to sue any company that participated in these activities in the name of the government. To encourage law suits, the Act allowed those citizen to recover a percentage of the amount fraudulently obtained from the government (O'clock 33). An amended version of the False Claims Act was passed in 1986, as a result of public indignation over reports of massive fraud among military contracts. This amended version contained provisions for employees that report inside information on fraud against the government to receive monetary compensation. This 1986 version also protects whistle-blowers against retaliation by their employers (singer 16). One recent example of the success of the amended False Claims Act involves a Vietnam veteran who later went to work for a company that makes electronic relays for missiles, planes, and other military hardware. The Vietnam veteran discovered that the company had falsified tests on some of the relays it sold to the United States military and felt that it was his duty to report it. When the report came out, he was promptly fired. The state brought a lawsuit against the company under the Federal False Claims Act. Numerous other Federal statues protect employee conduct against retaliatory discharge. One example is the Occupational Safety Health Act of 1970 (OSHA), which prohibits employers from firing employees who file OSHA complaints against them. There is also an anti-retaliation provisions in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, it was amended in 1947 and 1959, defining as unfair labor practice on the part of an employer "the act of retaliation against employees who file charges under the act, or who give testimony in a National Labor Relations Board hearing" (O Clock 34). Federal employees were not the only workers forced to face retaliation for whistle-blowing. In New York City (Garber V. Ward), a police officer was passed over for pro...
