I was pleased to read on AccoutnancyAge.com today of a small US bank who was ordered to reverse its decision to sack its chief financial officer for blowing the whistle and refusing to certify the company's financial statements.

The Virginia bank is now supposed to reinstate David Welch to his job on an interim basis, or offer him payment or will be forced to do so by the federal district court, according to WebCPA.

The ruling is a welcome result of Sarbox. But this sort of action has a longer history in the UK. I remember covering a spate of scandals involving sacked whistleblowers in the early 1990s that led to the creation of the charity Public Concern at Work in 1993. More recently we've seen the the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.

None of this legislation is perfect. And whistelblowers continue to face tremendous obstacles. But high-profile cases like that of Welch can only help.