Meet David Michaels. Or maybe you shouldn’t want to. Michaels is assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health agency.
Lately, Michaels and OSHA have concentrated on its whistleblower program; and employers should expect more claims and investigations. It has been developing a “multifaceted plan for strengthening the enforcement of 21 whistleblower laws under its jurisdiction,” according to Richard Alaniz, senior partner at Alaniz and Schraeder, a national labor and employment firm based in Houston. The changes follow reports by the Government Accountability Office that found problems with transparency, accountability, training, internal communications and audits in OSHA’s whistleblower program.