By Michael A. Wiseman

A new bill has made it through the North Carolina General Assembly and landed on Pat McCrory’s desk, that would allow companies to sue whistleblowers for potential damages that result from what those employees reveal. House Bill 405, titled “The Property Protection Act,” ensures greater protection for big business and private industry at the expense of their employees.

Whistleblowing is one of the few protections that employees have in the workplace. Essentially, any person that sees an illegal or dishonest activity, or unsafe working condition, can report that incident to the government without fear or reprisal. This applies to both public and private companies.

However, House Bill 405 essentially removes that protection – it gives those companies the right to afterwards sue the employee afterwards for “recovery of damage.” Essentially, if you see something illegal or unsafe and report it, but that employer doesn’t feel you had the right to access it, they can sue you for monetary compensation for whatever damages they suffered plus court costs, and additional fines to the tune of $5,000 per day.

This has been termed an “Ag-gag” law, which is a class of anti-whistleblower laws within the agricultural industry. Such laws have been passed in seven other states. The focus of many of those laws have been eliminating protections for reporting violations found at farms – the types of protections workers and journalist rely upon to make sure the public food supply chain is safe. Such reporting has led to numerous non-compliant farms, farms that house animals in unsafe conditions and use environmentally damaging techniques, to either be fined or shut down.

One such incident took place in California early last year, where Ranchero Feeding Corp allegedly sold meat from cows that had cancer. It eventually led to a 9 million pound beef recall. There have been numerous reported incidents within our own state of employees abusing chickens, turkeys, and pigs.

These situations were all brought to light by inside sources – the same type of sources HB 405 is targeting. And since North Carolina ranks second in the country for number of factory-farmed hogs, second in turkey production, the lack of food-chain oversight could have damaging economic ramifications as well.

However, North Carolina’s law also goes further. Rather than focusing solely on the agriculture industry, the wording of HB 405 is loose enough that it could be appropriated for a number of situations; critics are concerned it might lead to workers in nursing homes and day care centers being targeted. While animal cruelty and food chain issues are dangerous enough, the care of our youth and elderly are much too important to put at risk.

HB 405 now sits on Governor McCrory’s desk. He has until May 29th – this Friday – to either veto the bill, or see become law (if McCrory does nothing, it has the same effect as him signing, just without his name on the paper).