Discovering that your employer is doing something unethical is a difficult situation. It’s hard to know who to trust or how to fix the situation. Most professionals cannot abide by problems like discrimination, unsafe work conditions, or concealed fraud in their place of work. Maybe your employer asked you to falsify records, not to report an injury, or to overlook safety regulations. Perhaps you saw your employer do something that is both illegal and intolerable.
What is the best course of action when you need to become a whistleblower? With the help of skilled Los Angeles employment lawyers, you will be able to navigate this difficult situation to keep yourself safe and forge a path to fix whatever has gone terribly wrong in your workplace. A Los Angeles whistleblower attorney can help.
How Can a Los Angeles Whistleblower Attorney Help You Blow the Whistle?
Whistleblowing is something that should be done carefully, taking precautions to protect yourself and others from the inevitable blowback. A Los Angeles Whistleblower Attorney can help you prepare to blow the whistle as safely as possible. We can:
- Defend You From Harm
- Protect your anonymity, if possible
- Protect you from retaliation
- Defend your colleagues who may be at risk
- File the Whistleblower Report
- Identify the correct authority to report the unethical or illegal activity
- File a complete and actionable report
- Bring in authorities quickly without giving your employer a chance to hide evidence
- Sue Your Employer
- If your employer’s actions have already caused harm to you and others, you may be able to seek a settlement for their unethical and illegal behavior. Especially if your employer tries to silence or retaliate against you.
Eldessouky Law is a team of dedicated California employment lawyers ready to help you navigate the complex landscape of whistleblowing in modern business. Contact our office at 714-409-8991 or fill out one of our contact forms online.
The California Whistleblower Protection Act
According to California law, it is illegal for employers to retaliate against employers for reporting unlawful, unsafe, or unethical activities. Many professionals believe that whistleblowers are only protected after making reports to an outside authority. However, the California Whistleblower Protection Act expanded whistleblower protection from retaliation to include those who report these problems internally.
Protection of Internal Reporters
For example, if you report an unsafe working condition to your boss, or report an incident of sexual harassment to HR, you are still protected from retaliation even if you have not yet revealed your employer’s malfeasance to the outside world. This ensures that employees trying to do the right thing through internal channels cannot be silenced through retaliation or wrongfully fired to keep them from reporting.
Protection of Refusal
In fact, you don’t even need to have made any report to receive protections under the California Whistleblower Protection Act. Employees who are asked to participate in illegal, unsafe, or unethical behavior and simply refuse are legally protected from retaliation from the moment they refuse. Just like internal reporters, those who refuse to participate are granted protection because employers often pre-emptively strike against those they fear might report them. Anyone who displays an ethical objection to their malfeasance is, therefore, provided legal protection.
This means that you are legally safe even before you are able to blow the whistle in any way.
What Is the Right Way to Blow the Whistle?
If you have become aware of misconduct in your workplace and have not yet blown the whistle, now is your best chance to approach the problem as safely as possible. You can take steps to protect yourself from mistreatment through retaliation by carefully preparing a legal shield and seeking ways to maintain your anonymity in the reporting process. This way, your employer will be held accountable and forced to stop unlawful or unethical behaviors, ideally, without putting your job or reputation at risk.
Contact a Los Angeles Whistleblower Attorney
The first thing you should do is contact an employment lawyer with expertise in whistleblower cases. Blowing the whistle on your employer in a way that can effectively stop the unethical behavior and keeping yourself safe at the same time is a process that can be tough to navigate. Your lawyer will help you determine the right steps to take to pre-emptively protect yourself and ensure that your whistleblowing has the desired effect.
Identify the Correct Authority to Send Your Report
Work with your lawyer to identify the right authority to send your report and how to prepare the report you will send. If it is a safety issue, your report will likely to to Cal/OSHA. If the matter is theft or fraud, you may send reports both to the local police and to an auditing authority in your industry. Each organization will likely have available forms and types of information they will need to take action against your employer, and your lawyer will help you determine what is needed.
Collect the Necessary Information and Available Proof
Once you have studied the report that you need to make, you can collect information and proof about the situation on which you will blow the whistle. Secure everything you find in external storage outside of your employer’s control. Do not put yourself at unnecessary risk to collect information, but do access any information that is available to you without raising further suspicions.
Maintain Your Anonymity, If Possible
If it is possible, the best way to be a whistleblower is to do so anonymously. If your employer never finds out that you blew the whistle, they cannot retaliate and you will not have to deal with several types of aftermath. Your lawyer can help you to make an anonymous report and to navigate the situation without indicating that you are involved. In some cases, you may be able to maintain official ignorance of the initial unethical activity.
What to Do If Your Employer Retaliates Against You as a Whistleblower?
Of course, it is not always possible to maintain your anonymity. The California Whistleblower Protection Act was created precisely because employees are often targeted from the moment they become aware of (or are exposed to) unethical, unlawful, or unsafe activity. Let’s say that you refuse to falsify a document for your employer or you insist on reporting a workplace injury after being told not to. If a report is then made, it can be difficult to hide that you were the original objecting party.
If you can’t protect your anonymity, you can protect yourself from retaliation in other ways.
Cite the California Whistleblower Protection Act
Let your employer know that you are aware of your rites. If you see the first signs of retaliation, or if you are threatened with retaliation, clarify your rights. Tell your employer that lowering your wages, moving your office to the basement, harassing you in the workplace, or abusively changing your schedule are illegal actions as soon as you enter the role of whistleblower. Let them know you have a lawyer.
Employers who genuinely want to minimize damage to themselves and the company as a whole will likely avoid overt retaliation actions from this point and you have ensured they cannot claim ignorance about the circumstances.
Document All Retaliation Efforts
Document everything. Ask for communications in writing (through email) and keep private copies. If retaliatory behavior occurs in a way you can’t record in a two-party consent state, write a detailed journal entry about each retaliatory measure instead. Each change to your working conditions, keep the records such as transfer orders, new schedules, or unnecessarily low performance reviews.
Work With Your Whistleblower Attorney to Sue for Retaliation Damage
Retaliation often serves to damage the income, morale, and career of the target. This makes it viable for a lawsuit regarding labor law violations and damages. You may not only prove that your employer has committed unethical acts, but also exact a settlement to repay you for lost time, wages, and damages caused as a result of the retaliation and, possibly, from the original unethical behavior.
Reach Out to Eldessouky Law for Los Angeles Whistleblowing
Eldessouky Law is an experienced team of Los Angeles employment attorneys dedicated to helping employees protect their rights in the face of hostile and unethical business practices. You should not have to endure harassment or mistreatment in the workplace simply because you are aware of your employer’s unlawful, unsafe, or unethical behavior – or because you told the proper authorities at the right time. Trying to create a safe and ethical workplace is part of being a trustworthy professional, and a trait employers should value rather than attack.
At Eldessouky Law, we do value your ethics and want to help keep you safe from retaliatory efforts once you enter whistleblower status. Whether you are seeking guidance on the safest way to blow the whistle, protection while you face retaliation, or justice after being wrongfully terminated, the Los Angeles Whistleblower Attorneys are here to help you make it right.
If you have questions about your rights as an employee in California or wish to discuss your case confidentially with one of our experienced employment attorneys, contact our office at 714-409-8991 or fill out one of our contact forms online.
