Employment Discrimination - Whistleblower Claims

An employer generally may not discipline or fire an employee who exposes activities that the employee reasonably believes to be illegal. Unlike other retaliation cases, the unlawful acts that the whistleblowing employee exposes usually involve violations of laws that do not specifically protect the employee. For example, an employee who informs the government of an employer’s suspected tax fraud may be protected even though the tax laws do not give the employee any personal legal rights. Along these same lines, an employer may not retaliate against an employee who refuses to do things that the employee reasonably believes to be illegal.

An employee may be protected from retaliation for participating as a witness in an investigation of his or her employer or for other actions to help enforce the law. Employees will lose whistleblower protection if they engage in wrongful conduct while making complaints. For example, employees usually may only complain about suspected violations to their employers or the government, not to the local newspaper.

Some examples of whistleblower violations are:

1. You are demoted or fired for complaining about activities of your employer that you believed to be illegal, or for assisting an investigation of your employer’s illegal activities.
2. Your employer tries to get you to quit, or makes your working conditions intolerable because you complained about your employer’s illegal activities or helped with an investigation of those activities.
3. You are transferred or denied benefits or promotions after you engage in whistleblowing or help a co-worker to do so.
4. Your employer finds out that you are about to make a complaint and fires you before you have a chance to do so.
5. You make an anonymous complaint, and your employer harasses, demotes or fires you because of it.
6. A co-worker makes a complaint, and you are harassed, demoted, or fired because your employer thinks you did it.

Nichols Kaster & Anderson, PLLP has litigation experience in many types of cases, including employer retaliation. If you think you may become involved in litigation with your employer, feel free to contact us.