Illinois state Rep. Joe Sosnowski meets with voters. | Rep. Joe Sosnowski/Facebook
Illinois state Rep. Joe Sosnowski meets with voters. | Rep. Joe Sosnowski/Facebook
National Whistleblower Day, now in its 10th year, was observed on July 27.
The annual observance featured a ceremony that included remarks from members of the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) and Jane Turner, an FBI whistleblower and columnist for Whistleblower Network News, a speech from Sen. Chuck Grassley, and a variety of panels throughout the day, according to the NWC.
“It is crucial that we continue to call out bad behavior in Illinois in order to end the culture of corruption that has grown in our state government for decades,” Illinois state Rep. Joe Sosnowski wrote in a Facebook post. “This Whistleblower Appreciation Day we say thank you to all those who have spoken out against wrongdoing.”
A whistleblower is “someone who reports waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, or dangers to public health and safety to someone who is in the position to rectify the wrongdoing,” according to the NWC.
In Illinois, the “State Officials and Employees Ethics Act provides ‘whistle blower’ protections to state employees who report or threaten to report wrongdoing, provide information, or testify about wrongdoing, or assist in the enforcement of the Ethics Act,” according to the state’s page on whistleblower protection. That page also features a link to the Office of the Executive Inspector General, which offers numerous resources including complaint filing assistance, an explanation of the complaint process, and examples of and remedies for retaliation against whistleblowers.
The Department of Labor enforces laws against retaliation and whistleblowing and has five agencies under its purview that handle the enforcement for different industries. Those five agencies are the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Mine Safety and Health Administration, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the Wage and Hour Division, and Veterans’ Employment and Training Services
Sosnowski was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 2010 and currently represents the people of the 69th District, which includes Winnebago, Boone, and McHenry counties, according to his representative page. He serves on the Revenue and Finance Committee and on the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, in the 103rd General Assembly.
Sosnowski is a licensed real estate broker and lives in Rockford, Illinois.
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