Government Operations committee  I'm not sure that I heard your question properly, sir, but that is the overwhelming rule, that the whistle-blower laws apply to public or private sectors. Some nations have them divided into different structures for the different contexts.

Government Operations committee  We have very similar rights for public or private sector, but yes, they are enforced through separate channels. Our labour department sponsors an administrative law process for informal investigations that can graduate into administrative due process hearings for private sector e

Government Operations committee  Sir, by employment-related contract matters, do you mean disputes involving employees and related to salary or working conditions?

Government Operations committee  Yes, sir, almost all of the whistle-blower laws have a two-part structure for anything involving harassment, retaliation, and things affecting the rights in the employment contract. That's part of the remedial section of the law that's investigated.

Government Operations committee  Yes, sir. Most of the whistle-blower laws do exclude things involving personal injustice—injustice against yourself or threats to your rights as an employee—from the disclosure channel, which is the retaliation channel. They're normally quite separate.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. Yes, the protection must extend beyond disclosures to supervisors or any specific channels. There's no one formula or recipe that fits all these situations. To make a responsible disclosure you need to do a lot of homework, talk with other potential witnesses, and do

Government Operations committee  Yes, sir.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, sir. At the last hearing I discussed the best practices in global whistle-blower laws that help us distinguish between cardboard shield rights, which doom anyone who relies on them, versus metal shields, which have a credible chance of protecting those who depend on t

Government Operations committee  Thank you, sir. From that perspective then, let me share with you some of the solutions that have been made for the concerns that we addressed about this one. None of these are new problems, and there are many examples of ways to effectively achieve the criteria that I was advoc

Government Operations committee  I think that the five-year period by statute is a reasonable one if you're going to have a structure for official review, but a review should be ongoing and continuous. Groups like ours are constantly evaluating the trends and how the law is being interpreted and enforced, and th

Government Operations committee  I think the first cornerstone would be to eliminate the arbitrary restrictions on when protection applies, so that it applies whenever you're not engaging in some sort of illegality by blowing the whistle. There shouldn't be artificial restrictions that it's written or oral, or t

Government Operations committee  Sure. This has been a topic that has been heavily analyzed in the United States. The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012, which was passed after 13 years of study, has four of what we call anti-gag provisions in the law. The principle is essential because otherwise

Government Operations committee  Yes. No matter what the culture, the magic word for any society is “consequences”. What's made whistle-blowers laws popular and the reason they have spread so much is effective education about the tragic consequences that could be avoided if it weren't for secrecy and the disast

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  I'm sorry, our sound was a little bit poor. I know you asked me about common themes in the whistle-blower cases. Is that your query?