• Evan Greenburg of Chubb Ltd. & Bill Stein of Digital Realty’s dream of ensuring employees could be fired for for reporting financial misconduct internally and not to the SEC soon to be usurped by new laws.
• A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced a bill to undue the mistake made by the US Supreme Court who endorsed retaliation against employees who report internally.
• House of Representatives also introduced a bill to accomplish the same thing.
• Greenberg and Stein’s retaliation scheme is hugely unpopular with corporate leaders.
• GreenBurg and Stein owe apologies to the US government and Mr. Somers for wasting time and resources on a really bad idea.

Bill Stein of Digital Realty and Evan Greenberg of Chubb made the call to appeal two lower courts decisions to the U.S. Supreme Court. Remarkably, the Supreme Court decided to allow companies to retaliate. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. v. Somers, 138 S. Ct. 767 (2018).

On September 25, 2019, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced the Whistleblower Programs Improvement Act (WPIA), which would extend anti-retaliation protections under the Dodd-Frank Act to internal complaints.  WPIA mirrors a bill introduced in the House of Representatives earlier this year as a response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, some say error, to put internal whistleblowers at risk. They determined that Dodd-Frank’s anti-retaliation provision only applied to individuals who provide information about a violation to the SEC.

In 2018, the SEC reported that nearly all employees who received awards relying on whistleblower protections first raised concerns with their employer. This is why Chubb was to keen to get to the Supreme Court; No protection means no reporting and a 90% drop in lawsuits resulting in far few claims for Chubb leading to higher profits for its EPL insurance product. Since March of 2018, employees have been not been protected from retaliation under Dodd-Frank unless they provide information to the SEC.

In 2018, the SEC reported that nearly all employees who received awards relying on whistleblower protections first raised concerns with their employer. 

Correcting The High Court’s Mistake. WPIA would essentially reverse the Supreme Court ‘s decision and protect employees across all 50 states and overseas once and for all. Under WPIA, the SEC would be required to make payouts to successful whistleblowers more efficient; The agency will have to decide on Whistleblower rewards within one year.