Workplace Retaliation
State and Federal, employment and
labor laws with relevant provisions prohibit employment
and workplace retaliation against employees for one or
more of the following.
The types of employment and workplace retaliation protections
vary; some employment and labor laws prohibit any type of
retaliation in the workplace or otherwise related to employment,
while others protect only against retaliation in the form
of illegal employment discharge, commonly called wrongful
termination.
For example, if you reasonably expect your employer to pay
you the minimum wage or overtime for
which you're eligible under the Fair Labor Standards Act
(FLSA), then your employer cannot rightfully retaliate by
discriminating against you in the workplace or by firing you.
Your employer also cannot rightfully retaliate against you
for reporting the employer's alleged violation of the FLSA
(or a state equivalent)
to an enforcing labor department or
first to your attorney.
Additionally, your employer cannot rightfully retaliate against
you for participating in resulting proceedings, as a plaintiff
or witness.
The same goes for reporting employment
discrimination (such as sexual
harassment) under a discrimination
law directly to the EEOC or
through your attorney.
If you contest the results of your new employer's E-Verify query
regarding your USA work-authorization status, then your new
employer may not retaliate against you while you're in the
process of contesting.
Under what are collectively called whistleblower
laws, your employee rights protect you from employer
retaliation for "blowing
the whistle"
on your employer for violating one of the laws.
For example, if you file a qui
tam lawsuit against your employer for cheating
the Federal Government in violation of the False
Claims Act, then you are protected from employer
retaliation by the Act.
Better yet, you're entitled to collect a fair share of
the award that you win on behalf of the government.
Laws prohibiting unfair
labor practices make it illegal for an employer to
retaliate against you for forming or joining a union, or
participating in legitimate union activities. Right
to work laws and related provisions in other labor
laws prohibit employer or union retaliation against you,
if you choose not to join a union or decide to resign your
union membership.
Employers are generally not allowed to retaliate against
employees who reasonably exercise their employee rights under workers'
compensation and unemployment laws,
such as filing and appealing legit claims for benefits. The
types of prohibited retaliations vary by state, as do the
benefits and laws.
In the absence of specific retaliation provisions, your
employee rights might generally protect you from employment
and workplace retaliation under public
policy or common
law.
For example, if your employer fires you because you refused
to break a state law or
city ordinance that
doesn't have provisions prohibiting employment or workplace
retaliation, then your employer might have wrongfully
terminated you in violation of local public policy.
If your employer or union retaliates against you despite
that it's prohibited, then your employee rights entitle you
to seek relief by filing a charge with the government
office that enforces the relevant law, by filing a lawsuit
through an attorney,
or both.
In the fiscal years (FY) 1997 to 2006,
charges of alleged retaliation that workers filed with
the EEOC increased from 18,198 to
22,555. In FY 2005 and FY 2006, such charges accounted
for nearly thirty percent of all charges that the EEOC
received.
Typically, you need only to reasonably believe that your
employer illegally retaliated against you; in other words,
to claim workplace retaliation, you don't have to know for
sure that your employer broke the law. It's the responsibly
of the enforcing government agency or your attorney to
determine whether or not the incident is actionable.
Of course, it's not a good idea to frivolously make a claim.
|
Subscribe
