Page 97 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

to, or refused to participate in, any activity, policy, practice, or assigned task that you
reasonably believed to be in violation of any provision of the CPSA or any other act
enforced by the CPSC, or any order, rule, regulation, standard or ban under any such acts.
Your employer may be found to have violated this statute if your protected activity
was a contributing factor in its decision to take unfavorable personnel action against
you. Such actions may include:
● Firing or laying off
● Blacklisting
● Demoting
● Denying overtime or promotion
● Disciplining
● Denying benefits
● Failing to hire or rehire
● Intimidation
● Reassignment affecting promotion prospects
● Reducing pay or hours

Complaints must be filed within 180 days after the alleged unfavorable personnel
action occurs (that is, when you become aware of the retaliatory action). 1

The HR Tool entitled “Sample Memo Regarding Knowledge of Threats to Public Safety
under CPSC,” at the end of the chapter, on pages 85–86, illustrates one way to address CPSC
issues.
If you experience or observe retaliation for having raised the public safety concerns,
reference the HR Tool entitled “Sample Memo Regarding Concerns about Retaliation against
Employee for Raising Public/Product Safety Concerns,” on pages 86–87.

KNOWLEDGE OF FINANCIAL FRAUD OR OF YOUR
COMPANY DEFRAUDING THE U.S. GOVERNMENT

If you have knowledge of employees at any level of your company financially defrauding the
federal government, you are in a very difficult (yet interesting) position. This is also true if
you live in a city and/or a state that also has a False Claims Act case. You have a number
of choices. You can pretend you don’t know, which may or may not come back to haunt
you. You can ask yourself to what extent you have been involved in the fraud, meaning, are
you merely aware of it or were you required to be a part of it in some way such as prepar-
ing research or documents or signing something related to the fraud? Is your name listed on
anything related to the fraud? What kind of direct contact have you had with the proof?
The False Claims Act (FCA) is also known as Lincoln’s Law, as it was implemented dur-
ing Lincoln’s presidency as a way for the U.S. federal government to prevent being
defrauded by citizens or companies. It also provided the government the opportunity to
recoup any monies of which it had been defrauded. The Act allowed ordinary citizens who

80 The H R Toolkit