Despite the whistleblower protections ensured in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, only a mere 2 percent of claims have been upheld.

An article posted by The Hill reveals that, according to the Center for Public Integrity, the U.S. Department of Labor upheld just 25 of the 1,091 whistleblower claims brought to their attention since SOX passed in 2002.

After Enron collapsed, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as a way to prevent similar accounting scandals by protecting data and internal controls. Included in the law was protection for whistleblowers: those employees who come forward if their company is defrauding their investors or cooking their books. The law states that companies cannot discharge, demote or harass employees who report the violations.

However, protecting these whistleblowers has not seemed to be a top-priority for the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is responsible for handling the claims. Now, Assistant Secretary of Labor, David Michael, intends to perform a “top-to-bottom” review of the Labor Department’s handling of these cases.

Several labor attorneys suggest that there are signs that the current administration will be more proactive in protecting whistleblowers, particularly because of the financial reform legislation that was just signed into law.

The bill clarifies that employees of privately held subsidiaries of publicly traded companies are covered by the whistleblower provisions, whereas before it was difficult for these employees to seek protection. There has also been talk about offering financial incentives to whistleblowers.

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