Dear Legislator,

 

 Please vote in favor of H.B. 2617 whistleblowers; exemptions 

 

I am [name] and am a member of [give a group name of which you are a member].

 

The university employees need real whistle-blower protection.  The Arizona Board of Regents are pretending to improve their whistle-blower protection.  Their new proposed policy can be seen at http://aaupaz.org/Jan_ABOR.htm

 

However, the ABOR proposal cannot be credible as a constructive contribution until it requires  1) objective, independent decision-makers free from conflict of interest; 2) guaranteed due process for a fair hearing; 3) realistic, modern burdens of proof consistent with the Federal Whistleblower Protection Act; and 4) the realistic ability to be made whole after proving illegal discrimination, as well as to pay for the cost of winning. Each of those minimum requirements is a prerequisite for legitimacy. The ABOR whistle-blower proposal has none.

 

The ABOR has revised their December version of a whistle-blower protection policy, to a new January version, proposed to supercede all current university whistle-blower policies. The universities are exempt from the Arizona state law protecting whistle-blowers as long as they have in place an internal whistle blower protection policy (A.R.S. 38-531, 38-532, 38-533).

 

The January version of the proposed ABOR Whistleblower Policy is still incomplete at best, and likely to be counterproductive in practice. It would be a kiss of death for any whistleblower relying on it.

 

The loopholes in the ABOR policy can be seen on the web at http://aaupaz.org/loop_ABOR.htm