By Jonathan Stempel - Reuters

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge bolstered protection for corporate whistleblowers on Monday by ruling the Dodd-Frank law gave retroactive protection to employees of subsidiaries, not just people who work directly for the parent companies.

The decision concerned the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, adopted in the wake of Enron Corp's collapse the prior year, which helped protect employees of publicly-traded companies against retaliation for whistleblowing.

Dodd-Frank amended that law in July 2010, as part of a series of financial reforms, to show that employees of subsidiaries should also be protected from any reprisals by their companies.

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