Retaliation & Whistleblowing

Federal and state laws provide protection from discharge or other adverse actions by employers in retaliation for employees’ good faith complaints about violations of work- place laws and regulations. 

The video (2 minutes) provides a quick example of retaliatory action.

A whistleblower however, is a worker who reports actions they believe violate local, state, or federal laws. 

These complaints are 'protected' which means that it is illegal for employers to discharge, demote, suspend or in any manner discriminate or retaliate against a worker for making a good faith report of information the worker believes violates the law.
It is illegal to discriminate or retaliate against a worker for these reports in promotion, compensation or other terms, conditions or privileges of employment.

  • Employees are protected for opposing unlawful employment practices.

  • A report does not have to be substantiated for the whistleblower to be protected from retaliation. The worker must simply have a good faith belief when reporting a violation of law or unsafe working conditions.

  • Employees have civil rights protections if they experience retaliation due to protected whistleblowing activity, including filing a complaint with with the state agency (BOLI in Oregon) or suing in circuit court. Judgments may include job reinstatement, back pay or monetary damages

  • Public and certain non-profit employees also have the right to report waste, fraud and abuse or other workplace violations without fear of retaliation.

 
 
 

Protected Activities:

The underlying purpose of whistleblower protection laws is to allow employees to stop, report, or testify about employer actions that are illegal, unhealthy, or violate specific public policies. There are both federal and state protections. Some states have very narrow definitions while others have definitions that are very broad.

Essentially, many (if not most) of the laws that protect workers, such as antidiscrimination laws, wage and hour protections, and health and safety laws, also make it illegal for an employer to retaliate against someone who engages in conduct which the law protects. Many laws protecting the public at large, such as environmental laws, taxpayer-funded programs, and government regulation of certain industries, such as nuclear power, trucking, and airlines, protect employees who disclose information that the employee reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, gross mismanagement, abuse of power, or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety.

Adverse Action:

An adverse action is an action which would dissuade a reasonable employee from raising a concern about a possible violation or engaging in other related protected activity. 

Retaliation harms individual employees and can have a negative impact on overall employee morale. Because an adverse action can be subtle, such as excluding employees from important meetings, it may not always be easy to recognize.

Adverse actions may include actions such as: 

  • Firing or laying off

  • Demoting

  • Denying overtime or promotion

  • Disciplining

  • Denying Benefits

  • Failing to hire or rehire

  • Intimidation or harassment

  • Making threats

  • Reassignment to a less desirable position or actions affecting prospects for promotion (such as excluding an employee from training meetings)

  • Reducing or changing pay or hours

  • More subtle actions, such as isolating, ostracizing, mocking, or falsely accusing the employee of poor performance

  • Blacklisting (intentionally interfering with an employee’s ability to obtain future employment)

  • Constructive discharge (making workplace conditions intolerable due to the employee’s protected activity)

Resources:

If you have questions, please as your supervisor or Human Resources. Additional resources can be found below: