Since July 16, 2007, the Department of Labor has paid Bob Whitmore $12,500 a month to not come to work. Whitmore is the director of the recordkeeping system of the Occupational Safety and health Administration (OSHA). More than a year and a half ago, Whitmore got into an ugly dispute, complete with spitting, with his immediate boss, Joe DuBois, over his time off. OSHA’s director of evaluation and analysis, Keith Goddard, placed Whitmore on paid administrative leave until the matter could be settled. But since then, Whitmore has been neither fired nor allowed to return to work. Meanwhile, Whitmore, a 36-year veteran of the Labor Department, has continued to speak out about his topic of greatest interest: the underreporting by employers of work-related injuries and illnesses, and OSHA’s willingness to accept these falsified numbers.