California has enacted a host of new laws impacting family and medical leave, coronavirus reporting obligations, workers compensation, pay gap data, worker classifications, and more. Here are the highlights, including when employers must abide by the new laws.… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Whistleblower & Retaliation Claims
Subscribe to Whistleblower & Retaliation Claims RSS FeedCOVID-19 Related Litigation Surges: What Employers Can Do To Minimize Exposure
The much-anticipated surge of COVID-19 pandemic-related litigation has begun. As the pandemic continues to lay siege to the United States economy, claimants’ lawyers and government agencies have begun setting their sights on employers.… Continue Reading
Employers: Duty to Provide Safe Workplace Extends Beyond Four Walls
Consider this in the era of COVID-19: how does an employer comply with its duty to provide employees a safe workplace when the workplace is not one controlled by the employer?… Continue Reading
The Black Lives Matter Movement and the Workplace
The Black Lives Matter movement, protesting racism, police brutality, and the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans, has not only been seen and heard in streets around the world; it has found a new voice in corporate boardrooms as well. The 8-minute, 46-second video of a police officer indifferently kneeling on the neck of Floyd, an unarmed Black … Continue Reading
Navigating the NLRA in the Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Workplace: What Both Union and Nonunion Employers Need to Know
As shelter in place restrictions ease and U.S. workplaces begin to reopen, both union and nonunion employers may find themselves facing a host of new challenges. Employers may wonder what they should be doing to keep their employees safe at work. They may wonder what kinds of medical tests they can perform on employees before allowing them into their facilities. … Continue Reading
Whistleblowing Increases with Increasing Visibility
While the current administration is taking steps to dismantle what it views as excessive regulation, one thing is clear: whistleblowers continue to blow the whistle, and ever more visibly so.… Continue Reading
Whistleblower Split Widens
Employers take heed: there is a further split in authority as to whether whistleblowers are protected under the Dodd-Frank Act if they only report securities-law violations internally, and not to the Securities and Exchange Commission. A recent decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals adds to the existing split among federal appellate courts as to who is entitled … Continue Reading
Expanded Whistleblower Protections Impact Confidentiality Policies and Agreements
All employers should review their confidentiality policies and agreements to ensure adequate protections for whistleblowers in the wake of recent actions by both the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”).… Continue Reading
Florida Whistleblower Act Objector Must Prove an Actual Violation of Law, Says Second DCA
The Florida private sector Whistleblower’s Act protects employees who object or refuse to participate in a violation of a law, rule or regulation by their employer. But an employee’s “reasonable belief” of a violation is insufficient – the employee must prove an actual violation to state a claim under the FWA, according to a recent decision by Florida’s Second District … Continue Reading
Federal Appeals Court Says Dodd-Frank Does Not Protect Overseas Whistleblowers
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled that the Dodd-Frank Act does not protect whistleblowers outside the United States.
In Liu Meng Lin v. Siemens AG, Case No. 13‐4385‐cv (2nd Cir. August 14, 2014), the court affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of a Dodd-Frank whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former Siemens compliance officer, Meng-Lin Liu, … Continue Reading
Who is a Whistleblower Under Dodd-Frank? Courts Disagree.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act protects employees who blow the whistle on possible securities law violations. But the question of who qualifies as a whistleblower continues to divide courts, as illustrated by two recent cases.
In Englehart v. Career Education Corp., Case 8:14-cv-444-T-33EAJ (M.D. Fla., May 12, 2014), the plaintiff, an employee of publicly traded … Continue Reading
Whistleblower Claims The Wave Continues
“The cover-up is often worse than the crime” – an apt mantra for employers who are being increasingly forced to defend retaliation and/or whistleblower claims brought in myriad industries under a broad spectrum of federal and state laws.
The United States Supreme Court’s recent (and landmark) decision in Lawson v. FMR LLC, broadly expanding the scope of potential whistle-blower … Continue Reading
Managing Employees Who File Claims
Dealing with an employee who has filed a claim places an employer in a precarious position – the employer needs to properly manage the employee, but avoid a retaliation claim in the process. It’s like walking a tightrope.
Employers have seen it many times – a troublesome employee is about to be disciplined, sees the handwriting on the wall, and … Continue Reading
Will You Be Ready When The Whistle Is Blown?
Claims by employees “blowing the whistle” on their employer are on the rise in today’s workplace. Will you be ready when the whistle is blown on your company? Better yet, can you prevent whistleblower claims from being raised in the first place?
Various provisions of state and federal law prohibit retaliation against employees who “blow the whistle” on employer misdeeds. … Continue Reading
Aery is Scary for Florida Whistleblower Act Defendants
The Florida Whistleblower Act (“FWA”) prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who object to, or refuse to participate in, the employer’s violation of a law, rule, or regulation. But most courts have held that an employee must show that he opposed an actual violation of a law, rule or regulation; a good faith belief that a violation occurred or is … Continue Reading
Keeping the Jury at Bay: Workers’ Compensation Retaliation Claim is Subject to Arbitration
A workers’ compensation retaliation claim must be arbitrated under the parties’ arbitration agreement, according to a recent decision by Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal, Audio Visual Innovations, Inc. v. Spiessbach (Fla. 2d DCA, August 16, 2013).
Michael Spiessbach injured his back while working for Audio Visual Communications, Inc. (AVI). He claimed that after filing a claim for workers’
… Continue Reading
OSHA Announces New Leader Of Whistleblower Protection Program
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has named a former chairman of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (“MSPB”), as the new director of OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program. On November 20, officials of OSHA announced that Beth Siavet will lead the agency’s whistleblower protection efforts.
OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of … Continue Reading
Whistleblower and Retaliation Claims – Hot Topic at Akerman’s 17th Annual Labor & Employment Law Seminar
You have done everything right. You provide a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for taking an adverse employment action against one of your employees. You provide all the evidence any jury could ever want, which you believe shows that the employee was never treated differently than other similarly situated employees. You think you are a sure bet for winning summary judgment. Right? … Continue Reading
