This week you will explore the rights and responsibilities of employee, applicable laws, and the balance of the rights and responsibilities and the employers’ responsibilities.

Man never fastened on the end of a chain around the neck of his brother that God did not fasten the other end around the neck of the oppressor. Alphonse de Lamartine (1770-1869) (Pozgar, 2018, p. 306).

The Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Whistleblower Protection  (WPP) enforces the whistleblower provision of more than 20 whistleblower statutes protecting employees who report violations. Explore the WPP statutes to understand further the various violations.

In 2012, Glaxo agreed to pay $3 billion in fraud settlement. Whistleblowers, Thomas Gerahty, a former senior marketing development manager for Glaxo, and Matthew Burke, a former regional vice president for Glaxo provided the insider information that the London-based pharmaceutical company was engaging in corrupt nationwide schemes to push sales of Advair, Wellbutrin, Imitrex and other popular prescription drugs for “off-label” (unapproved) uses, that it used improper financial inducements to market its drugs, and that it misrepresented the safety and efficacy of those drugs. Glaxo’s illegal practices caused Medicare, Tricare – the healthcare program for the military and Medicaid to incur huge losses.

United States of America ex. Thomas Gerahty and Mathew Burke vs. GlaxoSmithKline and SmithKline Beecham Corp.

1. In consideration of the whistleblowers in the GlaxoSmithKline case, discuss the implications for these employee as well as the employer as they pertain to the WPP.