Sec. 177.11. Staff protection

For the protection of employees, the following rules shall apply:

(a) When an employee is or may be the subject of an investigation which might lead to employee disciplinary action or criminal prosecution, he/she may choose not to speak to the ombudsman.

(b) Ombudsman's reports may not be placed in an employee's personal history file or referred to therein.

(c) An employee who has been accused by a resident, another employee or any interested party of violating a youth's legal rights, may request the ombudsman to investigate the accusation, and the ombudsman shall advise the facility or program director of such request.

(d) Any complaint or grievance may be included in the ombudsman's report. Whenever a complaint or grievance is cited in a report and that complaint or grievance is found to have no basis in fact, the report should so state. If the investigation of the complaint or grievance is incomplete at the time it is first reported, a subsequent report shall recite the complaint or grievance and clearly state that it was found to have no basis in fact. The employee shall be identified in the report only if he/she had been identified in a previous report.