Reprisal occurs when a responsible management official takes (or threatens to take) an adverse personnel action against an individual, or withholds a favorable personnel action, because that individual made or was thought to have made a protected communication.

The Department of Defense (DoD) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) handles civilian and military reprisal cases for all DoD subcomponent agencies. If you would like to make a reprisal complaint, please see the DoD Hotline website at http://www.dodig.mil/hotline, and visit the 'Reprisal Complaints' page for additional information.

There are three types of reprisal for which an individual may file a complaint:

Military Reprisal
Members of the Armed Services who feel that they have been reprised against have the option of either (1) directly contacting their Military Department Inspector General; or (2) reporting their complaints to the DoD OIG Directorate for Military Reprisal Investigations (via the DoD Defense Hotline), pursuant to 10 U.S.C. §1034, as implemented by DoD Directive 7050.06.

Civilian Reprisal
DOD civilian employees (appropriated fund) may file reprisal complaints with the DoD IG Directorate for Civilian Reprisal Investigations (CRI), via the Defense Hotline.  CRI investigates complaints of reprisal consistent with Subchapter II, Chapter 12 of 5 U.S.C. §2302, and §7 of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as implemented by DoD Directive 5106.01.

Contractor Reprisal
All DOD contractor employees must report allegations of whistleblower reprisal directly to the DoD OIG (via the DoD Defense Hotline), pursuant to 10 U.S.C. § 2409 (and either 48 C.F.R. § 3.9 or Defense Acquisition Regulations System Subpart 203.9).