By James L. Curtis and Craig B. Simonsen

We had previously blogged about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s solicitation of public comments (78 Fed. Reg. 3918) on a proposal to provide an electronic submission form for employees to submit retaliation complaints.

Now, without any further rulemaking or other explanation concerning any comments that OSHA may have received, or without final rulemaking, it has launched the online submission form. OSHA’s whistleblower regulations specify the procedures that an employee must use to file a complaint alleging that their employer violated a whistleblower provision for which OSHA has investigative responsibility. Any employee who believes that such a violation occurred may file a complaint.

So now employees may quite easily go online and complete the thirty section ‘‘Notice of Whistleblower Complaint’’ form, which will submit electronically the complaint of retaliation to OSHA directly over the Internet.