Recent victories for whistleblowers and tech workers

Here’s a round up of some recent wins for whistleblowers and tech workers:

New York bill expanding whistleblower protections

A bill amending New York Labor Law went into effect on 26 Jan 2022 that improves whistleblower protections for employees. Highlights of the new bill expanding the definition of “employee”, a broader definition of what activities are included, as well as a longer statute of limitations. More details of the changes are listed here.

?Empowering Amazon warehouse workers

Voting is underway to determine whether workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama will vote in favor of forming a union. This election is understood to represent not just a move to improve working conditions for warehouse employees but also highlights, in particular, the conditions of low-wage employees of color.

?Win in user privacy = losses for big tech profits

When iPhone users were allowed to choose whether they could be be tracked by advertisers, most opted to block them, which is changing the landscape of user privacy for big tech. With Apple’s new privacy feature, there are speculations Meta will stand to lose $10 billion in sales and wreaked havoc on Facebook’s stock valuation when the stock price dropped more then 26% in a day.

?And in Europe...

Whistleblowers in France celebrated a big win in early February with the adoption of new whistleblower protections by the French parliament. Legislation includes the protection of NGOs and unions that supporting whistleblowers and give whistleblowers the option to go to the press without blowing the whistle internally first.

?For an update on how other EU countries are addressing whistleblower protections, see the EU Whistleblowing Monitor.

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