Featured Synopsis: Whistleblower Protections for Oil and Gas Workers Employed on the Outer Continental Shelf

By: Ajeet Badesha

While every state has its own whistleblower laws, and several federal whistleblower laws currently exist for various industries, there are no federal whistleblowing protections for people employed on facilities on the Outer Continental Shelf. Therefore, for nearly a decade, lawmakers have been attempting to pass the Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act. The proposed legislation lays out protections for those employed on the Outer Continental Shelf in addition to the procedure a complainant must follow to receive relief for a violation of the statute.

The Act was proposed to solve the dilemma of the lack of anti-retaliatory protection from employers for whistleblowing activities conducted by oil and gas workers on the Outer Continental Shelf. The most recent Bill was introduced in November of 2017 in the 115th Congress and it attempted to prohibit an employer from discharging, discriminating against, or retaliating against an employee working in the waters of the Outer Continental Shelf for “blowing the whistle” on his or her employer for violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

The Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act was originally enacted after the Deepwater Horizon accident which tragically took the lives of eleven people, in addition to resulting in the largest oil spill in United States’ history. Employees on Deepwater Horizon knew that working conditions on the rig were unsafe, however, they did not notify anyone of their safety concerns due to fear that they would be terminated. The Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act could prevent another accident like Deepwater Horizon from occurring. No one should be forced to work in an unsafe environment without protections in place to help keep them safe. That is why it is so imperative that this Act gets passed. If employers are engaged in conduct that is against public policy, they should be held accountable, and they should not be able to retaliate against the employee who pointed out the violation. Ensuring that employees will not be terminated or negatively impacted for blowing the whistle on a violation of OCSLA could potentially save lives, protect the environment, and save billions of dollars.

We look forward to reading this full comment in the Loyola Maritime Law Journal Winter 2019 Edition!