Reference is to the bill as introduced.
Amend the bill, as and if amended, by striking all after the enacting words and inserting:
/ SECTION 1. Chapter 27, Title 8 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
"Section 8-27-05. This chapter may be cited as the 'South Carolina Whistleblower and Public Employee Protection Act'."
SECTION 2. Section
8-27-10(3) of the 1976 Code, as added by Act 164 of 1993, is
amended to read:
"(3) 'Appropriate
authority' means, respectively, the public body that employs the
person making the report; or a federal, state, or local
governmental body, agency, or organization having jurisdiction
over criminal law enforcement, regulatory violations,
professional conduct or ethics, or wrongdoing. If a report is
made to an entity other than the public body employing the
person making the report, the employing public body must be
notified as soon as practicable by the entity that received the
report. The term includes, but it is not limited to, the
Inspector General, the South Carolina Law Enforcement
Division, the Solicitor's Office, the State Ethics Commission,
the State Auditor, the Legislative Audit Council, and the Office
of Attorney General."
SECTION 3. Section 8-27-20 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 164 of 1993, is further amended to read:
"Section 8-27-20.
(A) No A
public body may not dismiss, suspend from employment,
demote, or decrease the compensation of an employee of a public
body because the employee files a written report with an
appropriate authority of wrongdoing. If the appropriate
authority determines the employee's report is unfounded, or
amounts to a mere technical violation, and is not made in good
faith, the public body may take disciplinary action including
termination. Any public body covered by this chapter may impose
disciplinary sanctions, in accordance with its internal
disciplinary procedures, against any of its direct line
supervisory employees who retaliate against another employee for
having filed a good faith report under this chapter.
(B) If the employee's
report results in a saving of any public money from the abuses
described in this chapter, twenty-five percent of the estimated
net savings resulting from the first year of implementation of
the employee's report, but not more than two thousand
dollars, must be rewarded to the employee by the public
body as determined by the State Budget and Control
Board Director of the Department of
Administration. This chapter does not supersede the State
Employee Suggestion Program. For employees of state agencies
participating in the program, items that they identify involving
wrongdoing must be referred as a suggestion to the program by
the employee. An employee is entitled to only one reward either
under this section or under the program, at the employee's
option. In the event multiple employees report the same
abuse, the employees may not receive more in total than the
twenty-five percent estimated net savings resulting from the
first year of implementation of the employees' report. The
Director of the Department of Administration will determine the
appropriate awards."
SECTION 4. Section 8-27-30 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 164 of 1993, is further amended to read:
"Section 8-27-30.
(A) If an employee is dismissed,
suspended from employment, demoted, or receives a decrease in
compensation, within one year after having
timely reported an alleged wrongdoing under this chapter, the
employee may institute a nonjury civil action
against the employing public body for:
(1)
reinstatement to his former or an equivalent
position;
(2)
compensation for lost wages and health care or
retirement benefits;
(3)
actual damages not to exceed fifteen thousand
dollars that result directly from the temporary or
permanent loss of health care or retirement benefits;
and
(4)
reasonable attorney fees as determined by the court,
but this award of attorney fees may not exceed ten
thousand dollars for any trial and five thousand dollars for any
appeal not to exceed one third of the total recovery
by the employee.
The action must be brought in the court of
common pleas of the county in which the employment action
occurred. No An action may not
be brought under this chapter unless:
(1)
the employee has exhausted all available grievance or
other administrative remedies; and
(2)
any previous proceedings have resulted in a finding that
the employee would not have been disciplined but for the
reporting of alleged wrongdoing.
(B) An action under
this chapter must be commenced within one year after the
accrual of the cause of action or exhaustion of all available
grievance or other administrative and judicial remedies
or is forever barred unless it is commenced within
one year after the later of the following, the:
(1)
dismissal, suspension, demotion, or decrease in
compensation;
(2)
exhaustion of all available grievance or other
administrative and judicial remedies; or
(3)
termination of the employment relationship
between the employee and the public body against whom the
employee's report was made."
SECTION 5. The repeal or amendment by this act of a law, whether temporary or permanent or civil or criminal, does not affect pending actions, rights, duties, or liabilities founded on the law, or alter, discharge, release or extinguish a penalty, forfeiture, or liability incurred under the repealed or amended law, unless the repealed or amended provision expressly provides. After the effective date of this act, all laws repealed or amended by this act must be taken and treated as remaining in full force and effect for the purpose of sustaining a pending or vested right, civil action, special proceeding, criminal prosecution, or appeal existing as of the effective date of this act, and for the enforcement of rights, duties, penalties, forfeitures, and liabilities as they stood under the repealed or amended laws.
SECTION 6. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor. /
Renumber sections to conform.
Amend title to conform.