An interim final rule published by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, if finalized as currently written, would give employees twice as much time as they have now to report suspected criminal antitrust violations of their employers.
The proposed rule establishes procedures and timeframes for handling employee retaliation complaints under the Criminal Antitrust Anti-Retaliation Act of 2019. Enacted in December 2020, the act is meant to protect employees, contractors, subcontractors or agents of employers from retaliation if they report potential criminal antitrust violations to an employer or the federal government or engage in other protected activities, such as testifying or participating in or assisting in certain federal government investigations or proceedings.
“A person who believes that he or she has been discharged or otherwise discriminated against in violation of CAARA would now have 180 days, not 90 days, to report the alleged violation,” Todd Logsdon, co-chair of Fisher Phillip’s workplace safety practice group, told the McKnight’s Business Daily.
CAARA is one of more than 20 federal statutes under which OSHA administers whistleblowing and retaliation claims, he said. As proposed under the interim final rule, the Labor and Justice departments would collaborate to enforce CAARA.
Activities are not protected if a covered individual is found to have planned and initiated a violation or attempted violation or obstruction of section 1 or 3 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which dates back to 1890 and prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce.
“Under President Biden’s executive order on promoting competition in the American economy, the department is working with other agencies, including the Department of Justice, to prohibit anti-competitive behavior by employers,” the Labor Department stated in a recent bulletin. “Such conduct hurts workers by weakening their bargaining power, lowers wages and widens inequality.”
OSHA is accepting comments on the interim final rule until April 11.
