Protecting Whistleblowers & The Injured

Know what retaliation entails

On Behalf of | Mar 29, 2020 | Whistleblower

When you file whistleblower claims, you have specific protections. One of these is that the employer can’t retaliate against you. In some cases, it can be difficult to discern what’s retaliation and what’s standard operating procedure. Knowing a bit about the finer points of retaliation can be beneficial.

In the simplest terms, retaliation means that an employer takes a negative employment action against an employee because the worker performed a protected activity, such as reporting something illegal that was going on at the company. There are a host of negative actions that fall under this category.

Some of the possible retaliatory measures that might occur include termination, demotion or a cut in pay. In some cases, it can mean being moved to a less desirable location or shift. Cutting your hours or adding more work to your load when these aren’t happening to comparable employees may also fall under this umbrella.

The protection against retaliation only applies to actions that are taken directly as a result of the protected activity. Employers are still free to employ disciplinary measures when they’re required by company policy. This means that you can’t claim retaliation if you’re being disciplined because you failed to comply with the policies or because you didn’t do your job properly.

If you think that you’ve been retaliated against, you should learn about your legal options quickly. You have limited time to file claims related to this, so you must not waste any time. You don’t have to stand around and suffer at the hands of your employer just because you spoke up about something illegal going on in the company.

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