Whistleblowers provide a great service to the people of the United States by bravely standing up to those who seek to commit fraud on the taxpayers’ dollars. Despite doing the right thing, whistleblowers face retaliation from their employers, including termination. This causes undue stress for whistleblowers and their families.
Call the highly experienced whistleblower attorneys at Rubin Law Corporation today, specializing in qui tam lawsuits under the False Claims Act for over 25 years. We protect whistleblowers and help them maximize their compensation.
What are the Most Common Types of Workplace Violations Reported by Whistleblowers?
Examples of workplace violations reported by whistleblowers include:
- Wage theft
- Misclassifying workers as exempt
- Sexual harassment
- Medicare or Medicaid fraud
- Discrimination on the basis of race, creed, age, religion, disability, Military or veteran status, national origin, gender identity and sexual orientation, including discrimination against pregnant women
In order to win damages you must provide evidence of your claim. You can use performance reviews and attendance records in your personnel file, your employee handbook, and other documents to prove retaliation. Emails, text messages, and messages from apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams can prove an employer’s antagonism, bullying, or hostility towards an employee who engages in a protected activity. For example, retaliation can take the form of verbal or written threats or harassment.
Circumstantial evidence also includes close temporal proximity between the protected activity and the adverse employment reaction. What this means is that if there is a brief amount of time between filing a report and experiencing any of the forms of retaliation listed below, then it demonstrates a protective activity played a role in your employer taking any adverse action. You can trust that the attorneys at Rubin Law Corporation to fight hard to prove causation and use the law to help you get the settlement that you deserve and possible reinstatement of your position back at the company.
Workplace retaliation can happen through different intimidation tactics. Among them include:
- Blacklisting
- Constructive discharge
- Demotion or being denied a promotion
- Employment penalties
- Termination
- Suspension
- Reassignment to a less desirable position or different hours
- A cut in the number of hours scheduled to work
- Ridicule and bullying
What Type of Financial Compensation Can I Pursue as a Whistleblower in California?
You can receive full compensation or backpay, compensatory damages, and punitive damages in a workplace retaliation case.
Compensatory damages include lost wages, lost healthcare insurance benefits, and lost retirement benefits but can also include damages for pain and suffering. Your employer may also be required to pay your legal fees for hiring an employment attorney.
Lastly, your employer may be required to pay punitive damages if the misconduct was egregious. If your employer is found to have intentionally violated your protected rights, then they may be required to pay punitive damages to deter similar conduct by the employer in the future.
Why is Whistleblower Protection Important in California?
You have various rights under the law! Whistleblowing has been a valued and even sacred protection under the law. Heroic stories in the news and major motion pictures paint whistleblowers as righteous underdogs fighting large corporations who have well-funded legal teams. Although the reality is not like a Hollywood movie, in truth, employees really do feel like they are going up against a Goliath.
People don’t like to think that their employers are trying to exploit them or the American taxpayers, but when they do, you can be sure that they are going to fight hard to prove their side. That is why you need an attorney with years of experience standing up to various corporations and is not afraid to be aggressive with them.
You have the right to join together with other employees to demand changes from your employer. You also have the right to report fraud, an injury or safety hazard, abuse, corruption, or waste.
How Our Whistleblower Attorneys Can Help You
Our employment law firm has worked with hundreds of anxious Long Beach employees who are afraid that they will lose their job if they speak up about their working conditions. However, it is illegal for your employer to punish you for whistleblowing. You have the law on your side, and you will also have a law firm behind you that has been litigating whistleblower and qui tam cases since 1995.
