We call it whistleblowing. California is one of the states that has very, very strong whistleblowing protections. It’s part of the California Labor Code, and those whistleblowing protections also exist within different civil rights statutes. There’s a whole lot of coverage and a whole lot of protection for whistleblowers. But essentially, whistleblowing is either reporting, resisting, or opposing unlawful activity, such as racism, sexism, some sort of sexual orientation discrimination or harassment. It could be based on age, disability. It could also be calling out safety issues, right? It could be a patient safety issue or an employee safety issue. So we have whistleblowing about something unlawful. Then the employer takes an adverse employment action, and that could be not granting a raise to the employee, it could be giving them the cold shoulder, it could be denying promotions, it could be cutting their pay, or even termination.
What we face a lot is just employers trying to be clever and trying to punish the whistleblower and create a paper trail, which is just a way for them to cover up their retaliation. If people feel they’ve been retaliated against because they whistleblew, they certainly have the right to file a lawsuit and they should contact us as early as possible.
View more Employment Law videos here.
Disclaimer: Attorney advertising. This is a dramatization. Past results do not guarantee future performance. Attorneys Mark Venardi and Martin Zurada are admitted to practice law in California only. This communication does not establish an attorney-client relationship, and Venardi Zurada LLP must accept your case before we will provide any legal services.
