In school, children often read stories about people speaking out against injustice, and in the scenarios they present, it seems so easy for principled people to summon the courage to do it. Meanwhile, the documentary format lends itself well to tales of widespread abuses that went on for years, and even though numerous people knew about them, hardly anyone tried to stop them. The goal is for viewers to think that, if they had been in the position of the bystanders, they would have spoken up, no matter the risk.
There are plenty of laws in place to ensure fair treatment of workers and transparency by companies with their clients, but businesses get away with plenty of bad behavior despite these protections. Workers have the right to notify the relevant authorities if they see their employers defrauding customers, endangering the public, or failing to abide by the rights of workers. The feeling that it would be risky to complain about these types of wrongdoing is the fear of employer retaliation, and it is a credible fear.
The Boulder retaliation for whistleblower claim lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can help you file a complaint about misconduct by your employer and can help you exercise your rights if your employer retaliates against you for your complaint.
What is a Whistleblower Claim?
A whistleblower is like a tattletale, except with more gravitas. In other words, a whistleblower is someone who alerts authorities or the public to misconduct by an employer, whether the employer is a private corporation or a public-sector entity. Any time you file a complaint to the relevant authorities about something untoward going on in your workplace, you are acting as a whistleblower, and you are entitled to the legal protections afforded to whistleblowers. The following are examples of whistleblower protections:
- Notifying your employer about unsafe working conditions at your place of employment
- Contacting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) about workplace safety hazards or accidents that have occurred because of these hazards
- Complaining to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about unfair or deceptive business practices in which you have seen your employer engage
- Filing a complaint about employment discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
- Engaging in a qui tam action jointly with a federal agency that your employer has defrauded
- Reporting crimes that you have witnessed at your workplace to law enforcement
- Complaining to a labor union about the employer’s efforts to coerce or intimidate employees out of participating in a union or engaging in concerted activities
Speaking Up About Wrongdoing or Injustice is a Protected Activity
Anyone who has been getting away with bad behavior for a long time will understandably be upset when someone suddenly prevents them from continuing it or attempts to hold them accountable for it. Therefore, retaliation by employers against workplace whistleblowers is common. It is also against the law. Federal and state laws prohibit retaliation by employers against employees. An employer’s actions meet the criteria for retaliation if the employer took an adverse action against an employee, and the motivation for taking the adverse action was to penalize the employee for engaging in a protected activity.
Adverse actions include the following:
- Negative reviews of an employee’s performance
- Hostile work environment, including harassment, bullying, or micromanagement
- Reassigning an employee to a different schedule, work location, or set of duties when the employee did not request this
- Denying promotions for which the employee applied and for which the employee is eligible
- Reduction of pay
- Termination of employment
Whistleblower actions are protected activities, but the category of protected activities also includes these actions unrelated to reporting misconduct:
- Voting in an election where the employee is eligible to vote
- Filing a workers’ compensation claim about an accidental injury in the workplace or a legally recognized occupational disease
- Applying for FAMLI benefits when taking a leave of absence from work for medical reasons or family caregiving reasons
- Requesting reasonable accommodations for a disability
You have the right to sue your employer if your employer retaliates against you for engaging in a whistleblower action or other protected activity. For help proving that the protected activity was the impetus for the adverse action, contact a Boulder employer retaliation lawyer.
Qui Tam Actions and Fraud Against Government Entities
The procedures for whistleblower claims are different when the misconduct you are reporting is a violation of the False Claims Act, a federal law dating back to 1863. President Lincoln’s administration enacted this law to address the problem of businesses that sold supplies to the U.S. military from defrauding the government, such as by knowingly selling defective merchandise or by failing to provide the supplies that the government had paid for. The law applies to all federal government entities, not just military ones. If a federal agency is among your employer’s clients, and you have evidence that your employer has defrauded its government client, the best remedy is to file a qui tam action. A qui tam action is a lawsuit filed jointly by the whistleblower and by the defrauded government entity. The damages that the government requests include compensation for the whistleblower.
Boulder Retaliation for Whistleblower Claim Lawyer
There are two sides to every story, and if you argue that your employer retaliated against you for engaging in a protected activity, your employer will argue that it only took the adverse action against you for a justifiable reason, that the protected activity and the adverse action were unrelated. It is never too soon to start documenting your employer’s actions, however subtle, that you believe are your response to your whistleblower claim. If you have yet to make the whistleblower claim, and you are worried that your employer will retaliate, you can start working with a lawyer even before you file the whistleblower claim.
Contact HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, About Employer Retaliation
The Boulder employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, can counsel you about employer retaliation for engaging in whistleblower actions. Contact the employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in Boulder, Colorado, to set up a consultation.
