You probably had not yet reached adulthood when you figured out that, if someone threatens to punish you if you snitch, then this is all the more reason to snitch. Yes, the schoolyard tattletale who complains to the teacher that other kids are engaging in minor misdeeds such as using PG-13 rated language or making rude noises with their armpits is annoying; the teacher will probably shrug off the tattletale’s complaints and tell the tattletale to find something better to do. By the time you are in the workforce, you realize that you are not going to earn the favor of anyone in your workplace if you squeal on every coworker who plays Candy Crush on his or her phone while getting paid to work or every time someone uses a work printer to print documents unrelated to work.
There is a time and a place to silence your inner snitch, but that time and that place is not when your employer commits a crime, endangers the employer’s workers or the public, or defrauds consumers. Regulatory authorities have established channels for sounding the alarm about unethical or dangerous actions happening in your workplace, and your employer does not have the right to stop you from using them. The Bozeman retaliation for whistleblower claims lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can help you prepare to file a whistleblower claim and, if necessary, can represent you in a retaliation complaint if your employer retaliates against you for filing the whistleblower claim.
Serious Misconduct in the Workplace: An Employee’s Dilemma
The reason that complaining to one’s family, friends, and trusted coworkers about the dysfunction in one’s workplace is such a popular pastime. We are complaining to our peers because we know that complaining to our supervisors will only cause trouble, and we rely on our jobs for income. All we get out of complaining is a feeling of community with our fellow grumblers, and perhaps bragging rights if we complain eloquently enough to make our interlocutors laugh, bonus points if they laugh hard enough to spit out a beverage they are drinking, or if they laugh hard enough to snort.
Sometimes, though, bad stuff that happens at work is not just the talk of happy hour malcontents. It is more than just a fun “work stinks” story if you see your direct supervisor embezzling from the company, or if your employer instructs you to falsify records to conceal safety hazards or financial crimes. In this case, it makes sense to talk about the problem with someone who can do something about it. The sooner you do it, the better, because the longer you wait, the greater the risk that someone will get injured or suffer preventable financial losses.
Speaking up about misconduct and legal violations that you witness at your place of employment has its risks, though. No one who has been getting away with wrongdoing wants to get caught, and when they do, they will blame the person who snitched. Therefore, there is a risk of employer retaliation if you report misconduct in your workplace, even though employer retaliation is against the law.
What is a Whistleblower Claim?
A whistleblower claim is any action in which an employee notifies the relevant authorities about crimes, misconduct, or dangerous behavior that the employee witnesses in his or her workplace. The following count as whistleblower claims:
- Contacting the police to notify them of a suspected crime that you witnessed at work, in which you believe someone in your company or organization was involved
- Contacting the Montana Human Rights Bureau or the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) about discrimination in your workplace, especially if you were not the target of the discrimination or if you were only one of many employees being targeted
- Notifying the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about unfair business practices in which your employer engages
- Notifying the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) about safety hazards and unsafe working conditions in your workplace
- Notifying government authorities about wage theft by your employer, especially when you are not the only employee from whom your employer is withholding pay
- Filing a qui tam action about violations of the federal False Claims Act
It is a good idea to hire a Bozeman employment lawyer to represent you before you begin your whistleblower claim to ensure that the recipient takes the claim seriously. The worst-case scenario is that your employer retaliates against you for speaking up, but the authorities to whom you speak fail to address the problem.
Coping With the Fallout From a Whistleblower Claim
Filing a whistleblower claim, regardless of the type of whistleblower claim you file, is a legally protected activity. This means that it is against the law for your employer to retaliate against you for filing the whistleblower claim. You have the right to sue your employer for unlawful retaliation if your employer retaliates against you because of your whistleblower action. In your employer retaliation lawsuit, you can request damages for the income you lost because of your employer’s retaliation. You may still have grounds for a retaliation lawsuit if your employer did not fire you, but instead took a lesser adverse action, such as denying you a promotion for which you were eligible, or even just creating a hostile work environment to pressure you to quit your job.
The laws on qui tam actions account for the likelihood of employer retaliation. Therefore, if a whistleblower employee files a qui tam action, and a government entity sues the whistleblower’s employer based on the whistleblower’s qui tam action, the whistleblower is entitled to a share of the settlement or damages that the employer eventually pays. A Bozeman employment lawyer can help you navigate qui tam actions and other types of whistleblower claims.
Contact HKM Employment Attorneys About Employer Retaliation
The Bozeman employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can counsel you about employer retaliation claims arising from whistleblower claims. Contact the employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in Bozeman, Montana, to set up a consultation.
