Despite whistleblowers being protected by law when reporting employers who are acting unlawfully, employers may retaliate anyways in order to seek revenge. The workplace can quickly become hostile and tense after an employee files a whistleblower claim. Coworkers may whisper around the workplace, trying to figure out who sent the report. Even though many hotlines for whistleblowers are anonymous, suspicions may grow until the worker is eventually found out.
As a workplace retaliation lawyer in El Paso, TX from a firm like Davie & Valdez, P.C. can explain, whistleblowers usually are motivated to speak up because they have a strong sense of what is right and wrong, and will take action if it means the workplace incident they witnessed never happens again.
How an Employer May Retaliate
Once an employer is fairly sure that a certain employee had filed the report, vengeful actions may be inflicted on that worker. The employer may be obvious about their retaliation, or more subtle to avoid further trouble. Here are the top ten ways that an employer may retaliate against a whistleblower:
- Suddenly firing the employee with or without providing a reason
- Decreasing the number of job tasks an employee is responsible for
- Excluding the employee from trainings and/or meetings
- Suspending the employee with or without reason for a duration of time
- Direct or indirect harassment by the employer and/or coworkers
- Intentionally creating a newly hostile work environment
- Demoting the employee to another department or job title
- Decreasing employee’s level of pay
- Denying a promotion that the employee deserved
- Giving the worker a dishonestly poor yearly review
There may be other tactics through which an employer has retaliated against a whistleblower. A workplace retaliation attorney can meet with you to go over what actions you have suffered since reporting your employer.
Elements of a Whistleblower Lawsuit
An employee who decides to take legal action against their employer for retaliation, must be able to bring forward supportive evidence. There are elements of such a lawsuit that must be true, in order for an employee to have a strong case foundation. The main elements of whistleblower lawsuits are listed as follows:
- The employee partook in or initiated reporting the employer
- The employer knew the employee was the whistleblower
- The employer took actions against the employee as a way to get back and him or her for whistleblowing
- The employee suffered mistreatment, discrimination, demotion or was let go due to being a whistleblower
Seeking Compensation for the Retaliation
Employees who have suffered whistleblower retaliation may want to take legal action as soon as possible. Your employer may do whatever is within their power to hide the fact that you were wrongfully terminated or punished for being a whistleblower. You may be entitled to financial compensation for your emotional distress, difference in pay from being demoted, and financial hardships which arose as a result of the retaliation. Please do not wait any longer to get help. Let an attorney fight to set things right and get you the retribution you deserve.