A federal labor appeals panel has revived a whistleblower's claims against the defense contractor Exelis Systems Corp., ruling that the employee can allege retaliation even though he raised concerns about unlawful conduct outside the United States and was fired while overseas.

In an Aug. 29 decision, the three-judge panel of the U.S. Department of Labor's Administrative Review Board ruled that federal whistleblower protections under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act can extend to employees working in foreign countries who suffer retaliation after reporting potential violations of U.S. law.

The ruling reversed an administrative law judge's dismissal of the case on the grounds that the whistleblower, Gary Blanchard, was working at an American military base in Afghanistan when he accused his supervisor of trying to cover up a security breach and filing inaccurate time sheets. Investigators with the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration had previously also concluded that federal whistleblower protections do not cover adverse actions, such as firings and other forms of retaliation, that occur outside the United States.