In a partisan 3-2 vote, the Trump administration’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed to curtail the rights of investors to file proposals for a vote at company annual meetings. If adopted, these changes will hinder shareholder proposals by union members and their pension plans to hold corporate management accountable. “We strongly oppose the SEC’s shareholder proposal …
Congressional Republicans and President Trump continue to push their sole legislative accomplishment, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, as a game-changer for average working Americans — but the benefits of that bill appear to be going mostly to the people at the top. Rather than delivering an “economic turnaround of historic proportions,” as …
Worker wages remain stagnant as wealthy executives are rolling in cash Read More »
The U.S. Supreme Court is mulling a case with major implications for would-be whistleblowers. At issue is fuzzy language in the whistleblower protections of the Dodd-Frank Act. At stake is the fate of people like Paul Somers, who was fired after he reported wrongdoing, and anyone who might blow the whistle in the future. The …
Dodd-Frank Court Case Could Redefine Whistleblowing Read More »
There was a lot of national attention when Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme collapsed and it became clear that he had stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from investors around the country. Many thousands of stories were written about how he went to prison, the SEC investigated both the scheme and how the scheme had been …
As of January 1, companies will have to make public how much their CEOs make compared to what their average workers make. They don’t like that rule so much — enacted thanks to Dodd-Frank — and they might be able to get it killed. On Monday, the acting chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission …
This past week, the SEC brought its first enforcement action ever to be based solely on retaliation against a whistleblower. On September 29, 2016, the SEC ordered International Game Technology (IGT) to pay a $500,000 penalty for terminating the employment of a whistleblower because he reported to senior management and the SEC that the …
SEC Orders Company to Pay $500K For Whistleblower Retaliation Read More »
Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a rule requiring companies to disclose the CEO-to-worker pay ratio. Despite objections by many corporations, the rule covers all employees including seasonal, international, and part-time workers. The SEC provides companies the option of using the entire workforce or a representative sample in the calculation. There will now be …
SEC Issues Rule on CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratio Disclosures Read More »
Recognizing that robust whistleblower protection is critical to preventing another financial crisis, Congress included in the Dodd-Frank financial services reform bill (H.R. 4173) numerous provisions designed to encourage whistleblowing and to provide robust protection from retaliation. These provisions create monetary awards for whistleblowers who provide original information to the SEC or CFTC, strengthen the whistleblower …
Dodd-Frank Bill Provides Robust Whistleblower Protections Read More »
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
