Brittany Argyriou

After a two-year hiring blitz in response to a significant increase in mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, and SPACs, Wall Street is reversing course. Over the last several months, many of the nation’s leading financial institutions have returned to their practice of annual layoffs or announced their plans to do so.

In an unfortunate decision for New Yorkers concerned about COVID-19 in the workplace, a federal judge recently ruled that the state’s whistleblower protection law does not apply to workers who complain about their employer’s failure to follow public health guidance.

The narrow reading of New York Labor Law Section 740 by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in HC2, Inc. v. Delaney could have a chilling effect on workers who have legitimate COVID-related concerns about returning to the workplace while the virus remains a threat to their health.

The COVID-19 crisis has shed light on the many everyday heroes that have helped patients, neighbors, and communities survive the coronavirus. In the shadows, however, lurk opportunists taking advantage of the outbreak – including healthcare providers and medical suppliers tasked with saving lives. Just like first responders, doctors, and nurses, whistleblowers who call out fraudulent billing practices during the pandemic are heroic, too.