Alaska Employment Law

In Williams v. United Airlines, Inc., 2007 WL 2458504 (9th Cir. Aug. 31, 2007), the court held that the Whistleblower Protection Program of the federal Airline Deregulation Act, 49 USC § 42121, does not create a private right of action for enforcement.  The employee’s sole recourse under the Act is to file an administrative complaint with the U. S. Department of Labor. 

In refusing to imply a right of action, the court used the Cort v. Ash 4-factor test.  It relied on two features of the ADA/WPP statutory scheme: First,  Congress created “a carefully-tailored administrative scheme,” which raises the presumption that “where a statute expressly provides a particular remedy or remedies, a court must be chary of reading others into it”).  Second,  similar whistleblower statutes expressly grant a private right of action.  Thus, because “Congress clearly knows how to provide for such jurisdiction when it intends to do so,” the absence of an express grant in the ADA/WPP statute supports the conclusion that Congress did not intend to create a private right of action.