A star witness at Tuesday’s
congressional hearing that featured whistleblowers from the Veteran’s
Administration received a $4.5 million court settlement one year ago after alleging racial discrimination at UCLA Medical Center, where he
previously worked.
Dr. Christian Head
testified yesterday that at his current workplace, the Greater Los Angeles
VA Health Care System, he was retaliated
against and humiliated after he blew the whistle on doctors who had falsified
their time cards.  
Head, 52, said he was
called a “rat” by one official in front of a gathering of about 300 VA
co-workers. He said his pay was
also withheld for two weeks after filing the complaints against colleagues.
“Retaliation is alive and well (at the VA),” said Head, who provided a
270-page document to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs outlining his
allegations. “Retaliation exists because there is a culture. This culture of
retaliation is really the cancer.”
Head also complained of
retaliation at his previous job at UCLA.
In July 2013 Head, who is black, was awarded a $4.5 million lawsuit settlement by the University of California Board of Regents after he accused UCLA
colleagues of routine discrimination and humiliation, including depicting Head
as a gorilla being sodomized during a slide show presentation.
According to 2013 news reports by the Los Angeles Times, the
doctor alleged in his suit that he was the victim of
retaliation after filing complaints, and he claimed he was denied teaching
opportunities. The suit also accused the university of failing to prevent
discrimination, harassment and retaliation against Head. 
In his House testimony on Tuesday, Head said he predicted
retaliation by the VA when he investigated time card fraud. As an associate director in
the Legal and Quality Assurance Department, Head told lawmakers that he had correctly predicted the precise retaliation that he eventually faced.
Head and three other VA whistleblowers who were retaliated
against earned bipartisan praise from the committee members for coming forward to testify.
They recounted instances of harassment, delayed pay or being forced to take an
administrative leave after they exposed mismanagement at their VA center.
The testimony came as the independent Office of Special
Counsel said it was examining 67 claims of retaliation by supervisors at the Veterans
Affairs Department against employees who filed whistleblower complaints —
including 25 complaints filed since June 1 — after a growing health care
scandal involving long patient waits and falsified records became public.

According to
Politico, the complaints were filed in 28 states at 45 facilities