Whistleblowing microbiologist wins unfair dismissal case against USGS

A microbiologist has won her case for unfair dismissal against a US federal agency after she blew the whistle on animal welfare and biosafety failures. The US Geological Survey (USGS) hired Evi Emmenegger as a fisheries microbiologist in 1994, and in 2006 promoted her to manager of the highest biosafety level containment laboratory at the agency’s Western Fisheries Research Center (WFRC) in Seattle. But in 2017 she became a whistleblower when she filed a scientific integrity complaint that the agency dismissed before putting her on leave in January 2020 and then firing her for alleged lapses in her research – a termination that was later retracted.

Emmenegger sued the agency, claiming that it retaliated against her unfairly for reporting animal welfare and biosafety failures, and now the administrative court that oversees the federal civil service agrees with her. Last month, the US Merits System Protection Board (MSPB) issued a final ruling that she was terminated wrongfully because of her protected whistleblower activities. It even directed the US Office of Special Counsel, which is the federal investigative and prosecutorial agency, to investigate and take appropriate disciplinary action against USGS managers found to have unlawfully retaliated against her.