Retaliation

Adverse action: Beware creating the perception of retaliation

11/04/2024

An employee who suffers an adverse employment action shortly after filing a complaint or returning from a leave of absence is likely to smell a retaliation rat. But what’s considered an adverse action?

Tolerate boss’s racist behavior, retaliation? Prepare to pay millions in damages

10/16/2024

If you need a reason to stamp out workplace name-calling, discriminatory work assignments and retaliation, consider the massive punitive-damages award a jury recently granted to an employee who sued because of ongoing racist behavior by a supervisor.

Fed agencies by the numbers for FY 2024

10/15/2024

The EEOC, National Labor Relations Board and OSHA have released new statistics on their activities during federal fiscal year 2024, which ran from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024.

Fired whistleblower triggers wide-ranging investigation

09/19/2024

An employee of a day care center who raised health concerns about the center’s kitchen will receive $43,295 in back pay. But it may cost the employer far more.

What counts as retaliation? Almost anything

06/20/2024

Follow up with workers who report discrimination to make sure they’re not being punished.

DOL lawsuit accuses farm of ‘Godfather’-style retaliation

03/25/2024

Want to know what you shouldn’t do if employees question their pay? Leave a severed pig’s head at their workstation.

Discouraging even one worker from complaining violates the NLRA

03/13/2024

The NLRA applies to just about every private-sector employer, setting strict rules for what employers can and cannot do when setting workplace rules. For example, it makes it illegal to tell employees not to discuss workplace conditions among themselves. However, until February, discussing work conditions had to involve at least two employees. Not anymore.

You can’t do that: Never ban employees from discussing pay

03/13/2024

Even though Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act has been the law for decades, a 2021 study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found nearly half of full-time employees have been prohibited or dissuaded from discussing or disclosing wages.

Supreme Court eases burden for employees claiming retaliation under SOX

02/09/2024

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Feb. 8 that under the whistleblower protections written into the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a whistleblower is not required to prove that his employer acted with retaliatory intent when it punished him for reporting that other employees had committed illegal acts.

NLRB takes on SpaceX in retaliation case

01/12/2024

The National Labor Relations Board continues to exercise its power to regulate workplace conduct while enforcing the National Labor Relations Act. The NLRB just told SpaceX that it acted illegally when it fired eight employees for raising sexual harassment concerns. The case shows that increasingly, employees feel emboldened to speak out against what they perceive as management and CEO behavior that violates evolving workplace expectations of how business is supposed to run.