ABSTRACT
Similar to a siren or fire alarm, whistleblowing alerts people to pay attention to what is happening or is about to happen, and to take action immediately. Workers who blow the whistle on prohibited or unlawful practices they discover during their employment can play an important role in enforcing federal laws. Moral conflict is immediately brought to bear when an individual considers the possibility of blowing the whistle on one's own organization. Whistleblower protection is a patchwork of laws that are often confusing to the aviation employee. The US Department of Labor (DOL) is charged with enforcing the federal laws protecting corporate whistleblowers at publicly traded companies. Two statutes aim at protecting whistleblowers in the aviation industry. They are the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR-21) and the Sarbanes–Oxley Act.
